

Bathe or shower, but don’t put on any lotions or moisturizers.Doctors do recommend that on the morning of a test, you: You don’t need to do anything special before either test. NCS can also help your doctor see how well you’re recovering from a nerve injury.

Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disease in which your immune system attacks the nerves in your legs and arms.Peripheral nerve problems in your arms or legs.Nerve problems elsewhere in the body, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.Nerve problems in the spine, such as a herniated disk.Neuromuscular diseases, such as muscular dystrophy.They can also help rule out conditions that you don’t have. The tests may be given to people who have the following symptoms that don’t go away:īoth tests can help doctors diagnose what’s wrong with you. When it’s not clear why you’re having problems with your wrist, back, legs, or other body part, one or both of these tests may be helpful. You might strain a wrist muscle lifting something heavy, for example.įor many people, though, a sore wrist is caused by an injured nerve, not an injured muscle. It’s natural to have soreness or numbness in a muscle once in a while.

The test can tell whether a nerve has been damaged. NCS measures how fast and how strong the electrical activity is in a nerve. Sometimes, problems with the electrical activity in your nerves can cause pain, tingling, or weakness in your muscles. Nerve signals are electrical impulses that travel quickly throughout your nervous system. If the test picks up a problem, you may be diagnosed with what is called a neuromuscular disorder. Electromyography measures how well your muscles respond to those signals. Your muscles move when nerve signals from the brain tell them to get to work. Your doctor can use the results of these tests to figure out whether you have a muscular problem or a nerve problem. The other is a nerve conduction study (NCS). When your muscles are sore or weak and you don’t know why, there are a couple of tests that can help give you answers.
