Sensory Nerve Action Potentials

An article that I found most intriguing is a study that demonstrated how age, gender, and body mass index affected "amplitude of sensory nerve action potentials, or SNAP" (Fujimaki, Kuwabara, Sato, Isose, Shibuya, Sekiguchi, & Misawa, 2009). In the article, titled "The effects of Age, Gender, and Body Mass Index on Amplitude of Sensory Nerve Action Potentials: Multivariate Analyses," researchers measured the amplitude of sensory nerve action potentials of 105 participants. A multivariate linear regression analysis was used to measure each nerve, such as the median nerves, ulnar, superficial radial and peroneal, as well as the sural nerves. The results of the study showed that as people age, SNAP amplitude declines. Also gender and body mass index amplitudes only affect the nerves in the upper portion of the body (Fujimaki, Kuwabara, Sato, Isose, Shibuya, Sekiguchi, & Misawa, 2009).

I choose this article because two years ago I suffered nerve damage from an autoimmune disease, six years ago, and went through extensive rehabilitation. While recovering I went through shock treatments and saw occupational therapists who taught me how to reuse my limbs. Since then, I've been interested in nerve degeneration. Another reason why I choose this article is because my friend has carpal tunnel syndrome and has to get surgery in her right hand. She's been declining because she's afraid of the risk of permanent nerve damage if the surgery is unsuccessful.

Now I feel that I may have the same condition because I've been experience pinched nerves in my arms, especially when I'm typing. The title caught my attention because I didn't know that gender, body mass, and height had any affected on the nerves. What I found significant about this article is that past studies have showed the correlation between human characteristics, such as age, sex, and height on "nerve conduction velocity, amplitudes of both compound muscle or sensory nerve action potential" (Fujimaki, Kuwabara, Sato, Isose, Shibuya, Sekiguchi, & Misawa, 2009).What researchers found is that BMI linked with SNAP, but didn't correlate with nerve conduction velocities.

What is also intriguing about this study is that nerve conduction velocities in the sural nerves differ in men and women. In the median, ulnar, as well as superficial radial nerves, women had higher SNAP amplitudes compared to the men. However findings didn't find any differences in both the superficial or sural nerves. Men's BMI mean scores were greater than the women (Fujimaki, Kuwabara, Sato, Isose, Shibuya, Sekiguchi, & Misawa, 2009). Even though there were no significant differences in nerve conduction velocities of both male and female participants, the study showed that the variance in the SNAP amplitudes of the nerves in the upper limbs might have to do with the variations in the body mass index.

There are several