Intercostal nerve conduction study in man.

A new surface technique for the conduction study of the lower intercostal nerves has been developed and applied to 30 normal subjects. The problem of the short available nerve segment of the intercostal nerves and the bizzare compound motor action potential (CMAP) of inconsistent latency while recording over the intercostal muscles, is overcome by applying recording electrodes over the rectus abdominis muscle and stimulating the nerves at two points at a fair distance away. With the use of multiple recording sites over the rectus abdominis, the motor points for different intercostal nerves were delineated. CMAP of reproducible latencies and waveforms with sharp take-off points were obtained. Conduction velocity of the intercostal nerves could be determined.