What is it about?
Every day, clinicians refer patients for electromyography (EMG) to investigate suspected peripheral nerve disorders. But how often are these clinical suspicions confirmed? This study analyzed 3,683 consecutive EMG referrals to evaluate the agreement between clinical preliminary diagnoses and electrophysiological findings. The results demonstrate that EMG serves as a valuable complementary diagnostic tool by confirming suspected diagnoses, excluding peripheral nerve disorders, and identifying alternative diagnoses. The findings also suggest that improving the accuracy of clinical referrals could reduce unnecessary EMG examinations and optimize healthcare resource utilization.
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Why is it important?
Every day, clinicians refer patients for electromyography (EMG) to investigate suspected peripheral nerve disorders. But how often are these clinical suspicions confirmed? This study analyzed 3,683 consecutive EMG referrals to evaluate the agreement between clinical preliminary diagnoses and electrophysiological findings. The results demonstrate that EMG serves as a valuable complementary diagnostic tool by confirming suspected diagnoses, excluding peripheral nerve disorders, and identifying alternative diagnoses. The findings also suggest that improving the accuracy of clinical referrals could reduce unnecessary EMG examinations and optimize healthcare resource utilization.
Perspectives
Future studies should investigate whether implementing standardized referral criteria or clinical decision-support tools can improve the appropriateness of EMG referrals. Prospective multicenter studies involving different medical specialties are also needed to validate these findings and determine whether optimized referral strategies can improve patient outcomes, reduce waiting times, and enhance healthcare efficiency.
Zafer Ceyhan
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Diagnostic concordance between clinical preliminary diagnoses and electrophysiological findings in 3,683 emg referrals: a single-center retrospective study, Neurological Sciences, May 2026, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s10072-026-09142-w.
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