Referral Diagnosis Versus Electroneurophysiological Findings-Three Years Experience from a Tertiary Hospital

An increasing number of requests for electrodiagnostic (EDX) tests is noted. Unnecessary referrals burden electrodiagnostic laboratories, prolonging waiting time for patients needing this examination. There are only a few studies investigating the distribution and concordance of EMG requests. This study is aimed to evaluate the requests of EDX tests and the concordance of referral diagnosis with EDX diagnosis. Electromyography laboratory database of our clinic between January 2008-December 2010 was used in this study. Data on examinees, referral physicians and diagnoses, electrodiagnostic findings were recorded. Entirely 2843 EDX tests had been performed and 142 of them had been excluded from the study because of missing data. Totally 2701 tests were included into the study and 1095 (40.5%) of whom were men. Mean age of patients was 48.3 +/- 12.6 years. Most of the EMG requests were done by neurologists (75.3%) and neurosurgeons (13.0%). Very few of EMGs were requested by general practitioners (0.7%). Polyneuropathy (29.2%), carpal tunnel syndrome (27.2%) and radiculopathy (10.2%) were the most common referral diagnoses. EMG results of 37.9% patients were in normal range. The referral diagnosis was concordant with EMG diagnosis in 52.6% of patients. This is the first study that demonstrates the distribution and concordance of EMG requests in Turkey. Most of EMGs were requested by specialists in our study. Polyneuropathy, CTS and radiculopathy were the most frequent diagnoses. Even though around 80% of EMG's were requested from neurology and/or neurosurgery clinics, half of diagnoses were concordant with EDX diagnoses.