In both cases, the doctor is looking for signs of nerve or muscle damage. In a nerve conduction study, the same doctor will use a light electric current to stimulate nerves in the arm to make muscles contract. Another set of tests is an EMG (electromyogram) and nerve conduction studies.įor an EMG, a doctor inserts very thin needles into the muscles of the arm and then studies their electrical activity. One is an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or CT (computerized axial tomography) scan, which may show a disc protruding from between the bones of the neck and pressing on a nearby nerve. To pinpoint the cause, your doctor can do a couple of tests. Most people will respond to treatment, making additional testing unnecessary unless the diagnosis is uncertain or your pain and other symptoms are bad enough that you'd consider having neck surgery for it. It's often reasonable to try a course of treatment for a pinched nerve without doing further testing. In many cases, your doctor can diagnose this condition just from your history and physical examination. By itself, however, arthritis on an X-ray doesn't mean you have a pinched nerve, but it can serve as indirect evidence that that is what's causing your problem.

In these people, neck X-rays will show the arthritis. But most people with your symptoms have arthritis in the neck and bone spurs pressing on the nerve. Nerves and the discs in the neck don't show up on X-ray, so you can have a normal X-ray even when a disc is pressing on a nerve. It sounds as if you have a pinched nerve in your neck. Does this sound like arthritis setting in? Or could it be a pinched nerve? Are there any other tests I can have done for this condition?Ī. Sometimes it travels down my right arm, along with a tingling sensation. For the past three months, I've had a pain in the back of my neck.

Nerve testing for neck pain