This study investigated which questions and quantitative tests were the best predictors of hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) diagnosis and staging within a health surveillance assessment.

167 male workers underwent a physician-led HAVS assessment, including quantitative testing. Additional presumptive HAVS staging was performed at various points within the assessment. Logistic regression analyses were used to compare the influence of various tests and questions on defining abnormality or staging.

There was close agreement between the self-reporting of digital blanching and the final vascular staging. Two questions within the medical interview gave 94% correct predictions with high specificity and sensitivity against the physicians’ final assessment of the presence of vascular HAVS. A cold provocation vascular test did not appear to influence the final vascular staging. This study reinforces the importance of obtaining a true history of vascular symptoms. There was fair agreement between presumptive neurosensory staging based on reported symptoms and the final staging. However, the diagnosis of HAVS and final neurosensory staging was influenced by contributions from the medical interview and quantitative tests. Analysis of symptom questions used within the medical interview suggested that four questions gave 86% correct predictions for the diagnosis of the presence of sensorineural HAVS, although the specificity was only 52%.