Abstract
Wei S-H, Jong Y-J, Chang Y-J. Ulnar nerve conduction velocity in injured baseball
pitchers.
Objective
To compare the ulnar nerve conduction velocity (NCV) of baseball pitchers without
elbow injury to baseball pitchers with elbow injury and to persons who do not play
baseball.
Design
Cross-sectional.
Setting
Hospital rehabilitation department.
Participants
Eight college baseball pitchers without elbow injury, 8 age-matched controls who did
not play baseball, and 8 college baseball pitchers with a history of elbow injury
with tenderness over the cubital tunnel area.
Intervention
Supramaximal electric stimulation was applied superficially to the ulnar nerve at
the wrist, below the elbow, and above the elbow of both the dominant and nondominant
arms of all subjects. M waves were recorded from the abductor digiti minimi muscles.
Main outcome measures
The ulnar NCV was calculated separately for the across-elbow and below-elbow segments.
The ulnar NCVs of both arms of the 3 groups were compared by using a 2-way (arm by
group) analysis of variance, with a statistical significance level of P less than .05.
Results
The ulnar NCVs were 64.40±7.34m/s, 54.97±8.67m/s, and 59.18±4.10m/s for the pitchers
without injury, pitchers with injury, and the subjects who were not pitchers, respectively.
The pitchers without injury were significantly faster than the other 2 groups. For
pitchers without injury, the ulnar NCVs of the dominant arm were significantly faster
than those of the nondominant arm (56.26±2.63m/s). No significant difference was found
between the dominant and nondominant arms for the group of injured pitchers and for
the group of subjects who were not pitchers.
Conclusions
The ulnar NCVs of the injured pitchers did not appear to be abnormal, but were suboptimal
in comparison with the noninjured pitchers. The above-normal NCVs observed in the
noninjured pitchers may be the result of an adaptation to trauma associated with ball
throwing.
Key words
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Article info
Footnotes
Supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan (grant no. NSC 90-2213-E-182-021).
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the authors(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.
Identification
Copyright
© 2005 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
