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welcome to acid the neuro diagnostic

society asset is the national

professional organization that

represents neuro diagnostic technologies

we want to take just a few minutes to

provide you with an overview of neuro

diagnostic technology and its importance

to patient care

neuro diagnostic technology is a

specialized field of health care and

which a person's nervous system function

is analyzed and monitored to help their

doctor provide effective treatment of

neurological conditions and diseases you

can use neuro diagnostic testing to

establish problems in the central

nervous system that is the brain or the

spinal cord and you can also use it for

diagnosing problems in the peripheral

nervous system so that is the nerves and

the muscles themselves this allows us to

better determine the cause of the of the

problem and then also then give the

patient the appropriate treatment

options for their condition neuro

diagnostic tests are easy to undergo

they're non-invasive and straightforward

let's do a quick rundown of some of the

most common neuro diagnostic tests

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the most widely known neurotoxic test is

the electroencephalogram or EEG as is

commonly known it is recording of the

electrical activity in your brain to

prepare a patient for an EEG test the

neuro diagnostic technologist will place

electrodes at measured location on the

patient's head the EEG may be done on

both adults and children and the whole

process takes about 90 minutes on

average often times it's very helpful to

record sleep so the patient may be asked

to stay awake extra hours the night

before the test the EEG is used to help

diagnose epilepsy or to evaluate the

effects of head trauma or severe

infectious disease an EEG can also help

to determine the cause of symptoms such

as headaches dizziness seizures or

convulsions loss of consciousness

strokes and other symptoms you may be

experiencing once we're through

obtaining the test then our

epileptologist would read the test and

at that time the epileptologist

would let them know what the results are

of that test

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long-term EEG monitoring requires

admission into a hospital and involves a

simultaneous recording of an EEG and

video recorded behavior for an extended

period of time

from several hours to multiple days one

of the goals of that test is to capture

a seizure while they're in the hospital

while they have the EEG on and while

there's a video camera in the room and

that way I can get the most information

I can see physically what happens to the

person via the video and then I can see

what the brainwaves show when they have

a seizure this is valuable for doctors

to diagnose patients who are having

infrequent neurological disturbances or

to diagnose or characterize events for

epilepsy and seizures or to evaluate

change in medications

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interoperative neural monitoring may

include EEG or evoke potential

recordings performed during surgery you

may not even realize it's happening but

it's very important to monitor

neurological structures at risk during

your surgical procedure intra operative

neural monitoring helps alert the

surgeon to certain kinds of neurological

complications and promotes positive

neurological outcomes after surgery so

to me the role of a neuro diagnostic

tech is to provide live feedback during

surgery on the functional integrity of

the nervous system including the spinal

cords the brain and the blood supplied

to it back to the surgeon so that they

are aware of how the patient in handling

the procedure some of the surgeries that

commonly include interoperative neural

monitoring or spinal surgery for

scoliosis tumors and aneurysms vascular

surgery and some ent surgeries

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now let's talk about above potentials

these are recordings of the electrical

activity from the brain spinal nerves or

sensory receptors in response to

external stimulation don't worry this

external stimulation is painless and

could be a mere auditory click or visual

pattern change

so both potentials are similar to sort

of intraoperative monitoring and that we

do it in the outpatient setting again

certain nerves or muscle groups are are

recorded and that information is given

back to the physician

this test is valuable when evaluating

neurological problems

such as spinal cord injuries hearing

loss blurred vision or blind spots

acoustic neuroma and optic neuritis

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nerve conduction studies evaluate

peripheral nerve function these studies

are performed by placing electrodes and

positions on the skin and then

delivering an electrical signal to the

correct nerve to produce a response

nerve conduction studies are typically

recorded on patients either in the

outpatient or the inpatient setting we

do sensory and motor testing of the

nerve conduction to find out velocity as

well as amplitude patients who undergo

nerve conduction studies typically

suffer from numbness tingling muscle

pain or weakness muscle cramping

abnormal movements and pain or loss of

sensation these studies help your doctor

determine the cause of these symptoms

and how to best proceed with treatment

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the nervous system consists of three

parts motor sensory autonomic the

autonomic nervous system controls such

things as blood pressure blood flow and

sweating autonomic tests will determine

if the autonomic nervous system is

working properly one of the more common

autonomic tests is the head up tilt

table which helps to determine how blood

pressure and heart rate change in

response the body position the test

shows for example if a patient is

disposed to low blood pressure or to

faning during these physiologic effects

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the last test we'll discuss today is the

magnetic and civil ography or M eg this

is a test that records changing magnetic

fields associated with electrical

activity in the brain so a Meg is

actually complimentary to an EEG the Meg

can actually tell you full sai activity

which is deeper in the brain than an EEG

EEG can tell you gyrus activity so the

two together can actually give you a

holistic image of the brain and its

activity

M eg is useful to determine the

functionality of various parts of the

brain and can be helpful in evaluating

patients for epilepsy surgery now let's

talk about what to expect when you

arrive for your test depending on which

neuro diagnostic test you're having the

preparation will be different you'll

first be introduced to a neuro

diagnostic technologist who's an

important member of your medical team we

assist the patient by making them feel

very comfortable within our diagnostic

test we explain the procedure as well as

explain what information that would

yield to relieve their fear all the

tests are easy to perform and you can

remain anxiety free the neuro diagnostic

technologist will verify your identity

prepare you for the test ask you about

your medical history medications and

important family medical history

technologists are trained to recognize

emergency situations should one arise so

you can rest assured your safety is

always their top priority the neuro

diagnostic technologist will maintain

your privacy at all times the

technologist will then conduct the tests

and provide the data to a position for

interpretation the neuro diagnostic

technologist is vital to what I do what

our Center does basically we couldn't do

our jobs without them so they are the

ones that perform the tests with

expertise and when you have a great

technologist you end up with great tests

that give you more information so they

are really like the first line of

defense to given an accurate diagnosis

the neuro diagnostic technologist who's

in the room in the operating room with

us is monitoring consistently various

neurologic function such as motor speech

specific cranial nerves spinal cord

function all these things so they're

consistently giving us feedback as we

are continuing to work we find that our

relationship with them is very very good

and they tend to be a huge asset to our

team credentials independently

documenting a technologists expertise

may be earned in every aspect of neuro

Diagnostics well now you know a lot more

about neuro diagnostic technology the

people involved the benefits of the

tests to you and your doctor for more

information on the profession visit

asset org