Degree of Agreement between Electrodiagnostic Testing and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Evaluation of Brachial Plexopathy

Objective Electrodiagnostic study (EDX) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are commonly used in the diagnosis of brachial plexopathy, but the agreement between these two studies is unknown. The aim of this study is to evaluate the agreement of EDX and MRI in patients with brachial plexopathy. Design The records of 69 patients with symptoms of brachial plexopathy who underwent EDX and MRI were reviewed. Based on the degree of agreement of EDX and MRI results, patients were classified as a "complete match," "partial match" and, "mismatch". Results Both studies yielded the similar results for the majority of patients (63.2%). Among the enrolled patients, 26.4% were classified as a "complete match", 36.8% were a "partial match", and 36.8% were as "mismatch". However, only one test, either EDX or MRI revealed an abnormal findings in 21.1% of patients. Conclusions The agreement between EDX and MRI was high in patients with brachial plexopathy. However, only one of these test, not both revealed abnormal findings in several cases. Although both EDX and MRI were in accord with the diagnosis of brachial plexopathy in majority of cases, these two studies remain complementary diagnostic modalities for evaluating brachial plexopathies. Corresponding author: Seung Nam Yang, MD, PhD, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Korea University Guro Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, 148 Gurodong-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul 08308, Korea. E-mail: snamyang@korea.ac.kr. Tel: +82-2-2626-1490; Fax: +82-2-2626-1513 Disclosures and Funding sources: none Conflicts of interest none Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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