What does a nerve conduction study (ncs) prove or disprove?

[cheekyholly]

Hello Everyone,
It's been a while since I've posted.  My neuro suggested that I put all this MS stuff out of my head and try to get on with life. I do not have a diagnosis and I was feeling fine at the time so I was happy to do that.  I was tired of being tested, tested, tested, and retested with no definitive answer to anything so "getting on with my life" sounded like a great relief.  My neuro said, if anything comes up just call me, I'll be here.  I told her that I never wanted to see her again and walked out.  It was in a friendly way, of course.  As nice as she is, I knew what it meant if I had to see her again.  My relief lasted about a year and I started to have symptoms again.  As promised, I called my neuro and she was there.  At my appt we talked over everything and she suggested I have a nerve conduction study.  I reluctantly had one.  The dr performing the test said my nerves responded beautifully!  YIPPEE!  This is great news, right?  As I began to think about it more, I realized that I had no idea if this was good news or not.  Therefore, I have arrived at two questions:

1)  Does a normal NCS point away from an MS diagnosis and to another issue?
2)  OR, Does it rule out other issues and point more toward and MS diagnosis?

Basically, all I need to know is if I can CELEBRATE because my nerves responded beautifully :)

[COBOB]

NCS and EMG test the peripheral and most of the root nerves.  If the peripheral wiring is good and there are sensorimotor issues, they are coming from the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord.)  Back to that old definition: "MS is a disease of the central nervous system ....."

Bob

[cheekyholly]

Thanks, your info was helpful.  I understand what you mean about being exhausted from all the back and forth.  Mental vacations are awesome!  Unfortunately, I think my vacation time is over.  My neuro is now talking about repeating lumbar puncture.  Sometimes, I just want to add myself to the MS 'do not call' list!

[patientnurse]

My nerves also performed beautifully during my NCS. So what was explained to me was that it proved that my numbness and tingling are not a peripheral nerve problem. Like jcrain said it's more to rule out other diseases, and as I'm sure you know MS is a dx of exclusion. I am still in limbo with a dx, and I totally understand not wanting to have all that testing, testing, and more testing. I'm currently on a mental vacation, although I check in here, I'm not thinking about my last test result, if I'm gonna see the neuro-opth dr, etc., I'm just going on with life for now, because I was completely exhausted from all the back and forth.

Hope my tid bit helped!

[cheekyholly]

Thanks.  That's sort of what I was thinking.

[jcrain9663]

As far as I can tell, it is meant to rule out a number of other conditions/diseases of the spinal cord/brain.  It does not have a bearing on whether you do/don't have MS, but it can serve to rule out others such as ALS, Myasthenia Gravis, and herniated discs.