Morphometric analysis of normal human sural nerves for systematic clinical application]

To obtain normative data on the sural nerve for clinical evaluation of the pathologic process and severity of the various peripheral nerve disorders, a morphometric analysis was made on 30 control sural nerves from normal volunteers, and from patients and cadavers with no evidence of peripheral nerve involvement. The ages of volunteers, patients and cadavers ranged from 13 to 83 years. The data obtained included 1) the mean frequency of abnormal teased myelinated fibers and its upper limit value of 95% confidence interval, and 2) the mean densities of total, large and small myelinated fibers and of unmyelinated fibers and their lower limit value of 95% confidence interval for each decade. The linear correlation between the age and each of the frequencies of abnormal teased myelinated fibers and the densities of total, large and small myelinated fibers and of unmyelinated fibers were statistically significant (P less than 0.01). Therefore, the morphometric data obtained from the disease nerve should be compared with the normative data adjusted for the age of the subject described in this study.