Evaluating Rehabilitative Medical Information on the Korean Internet: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Stroke

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the sites of medical information by popular search engines and its appropriateness as guidance to medical information. METHOD: The search phrase "carpal tunnel syndrome" (CTS) and "stroke" were entered into four commonly used Korean web search engines. 24 and 21 web-sites from search engines were gathered, respectively. These web sites then were evaluated for authorship, content, and an informational value score was assigned to each. RESULTS: According to authorship in CTS, 16.6 percent of the sites were commercial sites and 20.8 percent were authored by oriental medical doctors with 37.5 and 16.6 percent by general physicians and physiatrists, respectively. With stroke, 9.5 percent was commercial and each 71.4, 19.0, 0 percent was authored by oriental medical doctors, physician, physiatrist respectively. Each 75, 28.6 percent of the sites offered conventional information. The mean informational value of web sites was 51.1, 41.1 points. CONCLUSION: The information about CTS on the internet is of limited quality, inconsistent contentional value, despite of relatively high informational value. With stroke, information was offered by mainly oriental medical doctors, and was not so valuable. The public and medical communities need to recognize these limitations so that the quality of medical information on the internet can be improved.

Alteration of Sensory Nerve Action Potentials According to the Interelectrode Separation

OBJECTIVE: Distance between the active and reference electrodes can affect the waveform configuration and amplitude of sensory nerve action potential (SNAP). This study was purposed to determine the change of SNAP parameters with varying interelectrode distance. METHOD: Median sensory nerve conduction study was performed in the middle finger of 40 young healthy subjects by antidromic method. To ensure firm contact with skin, strip adhesive electrode was used for recording responses. The active electrode was fixed on 1 cm distal to the proximal flexion crease of middle finger and interelectrode separation was increased from 1 to 5 cm by 1.0 cm increments. Bar electrode was fixed 14 cm proximal from active electrode for stimulation in the wrist area. RESULTS: As the interelectrode distance increased from 1 cm to 5 cm, onset latency remained unchanged. The peak latency increased with increasing the distance up to 3 cm but didn't change beyond 3 cm (1 cm: 2.89 0.89 msec, 2 cm: 2.97 0.89 msec, 3 cm: 3.02 0.19 msec, 4 cm: 3.02 0.19 msec, 5 cm: 3.02 0.20 msec). Base-to-peak amplitude significantly increased only up to 3 cm (1 cm: 30.3 6.7 microvolt, 2 cm: 43.7 8.6 microvolt, 3 cm: 50.8 10.4 microvolt, 4 cm: 51.1 10.9 microvolt, 5c m: 51.3 11.4 microvolt) but peak-to-peak amplitude sequentially increased to 5 cm (1 cm: 49.6 12.1 microvolt, 2 cm: 72.8 14.4 microvolt, 3 cm: 83.6 19.4 microvolt, 4 cm: 91.3 22.5 microvolt, 5 cm: 93.4 23.9 microvolt)(p<.05). CONCLUSION: This study showed that changing interelectrode distance altered some parameters of SNAP, especially the peak-to peak amplitude.