Objective: To investigate the conduction velocity of sympathetic skin response(SSR) in normal adults.
Method: The latency of SSR was measured in 41 normal healthy subjects by the simultaneous recordings from three sites of the hand. And we also measured the distance and conduction time between the recording sites of the hand. The conduction velocity of SSR was calculated by dividing the distance by conduction time.
Results: The SSR was obtainable in all subjects from three sites of the hand. The mean latencies of SSR recorded from wrist, midpalm and index finger were 1.29, 1.40 and 1.54 seconds respectively. And the mean latency showed a significant increase from wrist to index finger(p＜0.05). The conduction velocity of the SSR from wrist to index was 0.57 m/sec, and segmental conduction velocities from wrist to palm and palm to index were 0.62 and 0.66 m/sec respectively. The conduction velocity of SSR in the distal segment was slightly faster than in the proximal segment with no statistical significance.
Conclusion: The conduction velocity of SSR by the simultaneous recordings at two or more sites of the hand can be easily obtained and offers a useful parameter along with the amplitude and latency of SSR.
