Hand-held Neurothesiometer – What, why & how?
What is a neurothesiometer?
Simply put, a neurothesiometer generates specific vibration(s) which the doctor use to examine how vibration sensitive the patient’s extremities are and how healthy their neural pathways are.
More specially, a neurothesiometer creates an amplitude-varying vibration at a specific frequency (typically 128Hz, or 512Hz), and therefore allows the physician to examine the function of the vibration sensor (mechanoreceptor) under the skin as well as the pathway that the sensory input travels.
A neurothesiometer can be used for the following purposes:
- Diagnosis of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy (DPN) and other types of neuropathy through Vibration Sensory Test
- Monitoring disease progress & treatment effectiveness
- Nerve regenerative and nerve conduction research
- Other non-neuropathy use: Auditory sensory threshold test
Typical procedure: The physician applies vibration on test site (usually the first joint between the knuckles of the big toe) and the patient verbally cues when they no longer feel the vibration. The physician will then decide if the duration during which the patient perceives vibration is within normal range or not.
Alternative devices available at the time of the project:
Why a hand-held neurothesimeter?
- It is small, portable, and battery operated, which is convenient for distribution in developing countries or areas with unreliable electricity supply.
- It is also simple, easy to manufacture/ put together.
- With integrated LEDs indicating the results, the device can be used by personnel with little or no formal medical training, which is especially useful for places with few medical professionals per capita.
- With the integrated Patient Response button, the device eliminates any delays between the patient’s vibration perception and their verbal cue, as well as any inconsistency due to the vibration perception of the physician.
- The device also has a linearly decaying profile, instead of an exponentially decaying profile such as in the conventional tuning fork, which allows for better differentiation between the vibration and the lack thereof towards the smaller (finer) amplitudes of the vibration.
- In a clinical setting, the device can be used for both diagnosis and monitoring of the progression of the disease(s) as well as the effectiveness of the treatment(s).
- In a research setting, the device can provide accurate, adjustable, reliable, and reproducible vibration with time and amplitude results, which is especially important for collaborations between different institutions as well as reproduction of experiments.
Feature comparison with alternative devices
How to use this device?
Step 1: The user chooses the desired frequency an amplitude profile. The default setting is at 128Hz with a linear decay profile.
Step 2: The user asks the patient to press the “Patient Response” button when they no longer feel the vibration at test site.
Step 3: The user places the tip of device on the test site and press the “Start” button to start vibration.
When the patient presses on the “Patient Response” button, the duration (and/or the amplitude) of the vibration that the patient felt is displayed on the screen. At the same time, one of the programmed colored LEDs will light up to indicate the suggestive result.
| Color of LED | Duration of vibration | Suggestive result |
| Red | Less than 5 seconds | Some degree of neuropathy is present. |
| Yellow | From 5 seconds to 8 seconds | Inconclusive. More testing is needed. |
| Green | More than 8 seconds | Result is within normal range. |
Operation comparison with alternative devices
