Motor Evoked Potentials after Supraspinal Stimulation in Pre- and Postoperative Evaluations of Patients with Cervical Radiculopathy

Abstract

Objective. Pre- and postoperative comparative evaluation of neurophysiological tests and clinical trials. Analysis of the diagnostic value of motor evoked potentials (MEP) induced by a magnetic field after supraspinal stimulation. Evaluation of the sensitivity and specificity of electromyography (EMG) and MEP is achieved. Methods. EMG, ENG, M-wave, F-wave, and MEP tests were performed on 35 patients with confirmed cervical radiculopathy in pre- and postoperative evaluations. The clinical trial consisted of evaluation of muscle strength, a sensory perception test and evaluation of tendon reflexes and pain severity. Results. The sensitivity of the resting EMG and MEP tests is 24%-67% and 6%-27%, while their specificity is 43%-80% and 86%-100%, respectively. The postoperative evaluation revealed a statistically significant reduction in pain severity (p=0001), an increase in muscle strength in DP (p=0.0431), BB (p=0,0431), and TB (p=0.0272), and improvement of touch sensation in terms of dermatomal innervation in C5 (p=0.0001) and C6 (p=0.0044). Conclusions. Tests comparing MRI sensitivity to neurophysiological tests show that neuroimaging is more sensitive in diagnostics of patients with cervical radiculopathy; however, clinical neurophysiology tests are more specific in reference to clinical trials.

Motor evoked potentials recorded from muscles versus nerves after lumbar stimulation in healthy subjects and patients with disc-root conflicts

“…Two to five single magnetic stimuli with the single pulse duration of 5 ms (sinusoidal, wave frequency of 1 Hz) were delivered via a circular coil (C-100, 12 cm in diameter) from the magnetic field generator; the magnetic field stream strength was 70%–80% of the maximal stimulus output (2.4 T); the expected depth of stimulation was to 3–5 cm deep. 1,2,10,11…”

“…Oververtebral magnetic stimulation is successfully used for excitation of lumbosacral and cervical motor centers and spinal roots to verify pathologies in neural impulse transmission of patients with disc-root conflicts for diagnostic purposes when recorded from muscles of lower and upper extremities. 1,2 The relevance of motor evoked potential recordings (MEPs) utilizing magnetic stimulation is crucial when its results support the standard clinical methods used for functional verification of the efferent neural transmission in these patients. They may present the different degrees of degeneration within axons in the compressed ventral spinal roots, the motor fibers of nerves peripherally, and the muscle motor units, depending on the positive results of rehabilitative treatment.…”

Relationships between the Clinical Test Results and Neurophysiological Findings in Patients with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

“…The sEMG recordings were performed at the base time of 80 ms/D and amplification of 20–1000 µV. The outcome measures were the amplitude parameters both for the healthy volunteer subjects and the patients ( Figure 1 ); the methodological and analysis principles of sEMG have been described elsewhere [ 33 , 34 , 35 ].…”

“…Following the descriptions from Bryndal et al [ 33 ] and Wincek et al [ 34 ], we used oververtebrally induced motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) by applying a magnetic field to verify the efferent transmissions from the spinal motor centres in the C5–C8 neuromeres to the effectors (recordings from BIC, APB, and ADM muscles) ( Figure 1 H). A MagPro R30 (Medtronic A/S, Skovlunde, Denmark) was used to generate the motor-evoked potentials a single stimulus was delivered with a circular coil (C-100, 12 cm in diameter).…”

Prevalence of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Cts) In Civil Shooters: Retrospective Neurophysiological Evaluation

“…It was delivered via C-100 circular coil by MagPro R30 stimulator with 70% of maximal strength (1,7T). The evaluation method from the spinal center directly to the effector has been described elsewhere [9] where amplitudes and latencies parameters were analysed.…”