Assessing the vibration perception threshold in a community sample of adult Ghanaians
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PLOS ONE
Abstract
Background
The vibration perception threshold (VPT) helps evaluate human somatosensory function
and diagnose peripheral neuropathy. To optimize its use as a primary neurologic tool, it is
imperative to establish its typical values in healthy subjects and assess the factors affecting
its variability in an individual to ensure consistency in its application.
Methods
Demographic data and a brief medical history were collected from 391 non-diabetic adults
aged 30–80 at Kpone-on-Sea in Ghana. The VPT was measured at the tip of the big toe, the
medial malleolus, the tip of the middle finger, and the head of the ulna of each participant
using a Horwell Neurothesiometer. The variability of VPT was assessed vis-à-vis the follow ing factors: gender, age, fasting plasma sugar and body mass index.
Results
The mean age of participants was 48.4 ± 0.7 years, and the female-to-male ratio was 1.46.
The overall VPT values ranged from 5.74 ± 0.14 volts to 8.55 ± 0.18 volts in the lower limbs
and 3.61 ± 0.06 volts to 5.00 ± 0.08 volts in the upper limbs. Age was found to be the only
factor that could predict VPT for both the lower and upper limbs (P < 0.001). One-Way Anal ysis of Variance with Tukey’s posthoc showed that the VPT in the feet was significantly
higher than that in the hands.
Conclusions
Generally, the VPT was high on proximal sites and low on distal sites indicating that the
vibration sensation increased from proximal to distal direction. Therefore, distal areas
should be used for VPT testing with a Neurothesiomer. Age was found to be the only factor that affected VPT variability. Hence, the practical application of VPT will require age-specific
reference ranges to cater for older adults.
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Citation
Citation: Djankpa FT, Amoah AGB, Adzaku FK, Aidoo E, Boateng I (2023) Assessing the vibration perception threshold in a community sample of adult Ghanaians. PLoS ONE 18(11): e0291606. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291606