Sural/Radial Amplitude Ratio: A Useful Tool to Diagnose Non-Length-Dependent Neuropathy.

INTRODUCTION/AIMS: Patients with non-length-dependent neuropathy (NLDN) exhibit reduced sensory nerve action potential (SNAP) amplitudes in both lower and upper limbs. This study aimed to determine a threshold for the sural/radial amplitude ratio (SRAR) suggestive of NLDN. METHODS: This retrospective case-control study involved 60 patients with definite NLDN (sensory neuronopathy [SNN] or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy [CIDP]) and 30 patients with length-dependent neuropathy (LDN). The diagnostic performance of SRAR was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC) of the modeled receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The presence of a length-dependent electrodiagnostic (EDX) pattern, defined as a sural SNAP amplitude lower than the radial one, was evaluated in each group. RESULTS: SRAR could be calculated in 90/164 (54.9%) of patients screened. Among patients with NLDN, the median SRAR was 0.74 (IQR 0.50-1.00) compared to 0.17 (IQR 0.12-0.23) in patients with LDN. The ROC curve analysis for NLDN versus LDN yielded an AUC of 0.94 (95% CI, 0.883-0.979). The SRAR threshold of 0.33 provided a sensitivity of 84.4% (95% CI, 77.8%-90.9%), specificity of 86.9% (95% CI, 79.7%-94%). The length-dependent EDX pattern was observed in 100% (30/30) of LDN patients and 63% (38/60) of NLDN patients. Among these 38 patients with NLDN, SRAR exceeded 0.33 in 78.9% (30/38). DISCUSSION: SRAR appears to be useful in the electrophysiological evaluation of neuropathies. In addition to usual diagnostic criteria, an SRAR > 0.33 may strongly suggest NLDN such as SNN or CIDP.