title: Stimulation of motor tracts in multiple sclerosis.
abstract: Percutaneous electrical stimulation of the motor cortex was used to evaluate corticospinal conduction to upper-limb motoneurons in 29 patients with multiple sclerosis. Central motor conduction abnormalities were correlated with clinical signs and somatosensory evoked potentials. Muscle responses to cortical stimulation were altered in 20 patients. The most common abnormality was increased central motor conduction time; in two cases the responses to cortical stimulation were absent. Abnormalities were also present in patients with no clinical evidence of corticomotoneuron deficit. Alterations of muscle responses and of somatosensory evoked potentials were usually correlated, but may appear independently. Both testing methods are useful in the study of patients with multiple sclerosis.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche, Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berardelli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inghilleri
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cruccu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fornarelli
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Accornero
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manfredi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004576:Electromyography; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009132:Muscles / Q000294:innervation; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission