title: Motor evoked responses from the thigh muscles to the stimulation of the upper limb nerves in patients with late poliomyelitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To demonstrate a clear-cut M response recorded from the severely affected thigh muscles to the stimulation of the upper limb nerves in a serial of patients with late poliomyelitis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifteen patients with late poliomyelitis, 7 patients with spinal cord disorders and 11 control subjects were included. Evoked muscle responses were investigated in quadriceps femoris and/or thigh adductor muscles to the stimulation of the brachial plexus, median and ulnar nerves.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Evoked muscle responses were obtained from the thigh muscles in all 12 late polio patients with proximal lower extremity involvement. The response could not be recorded from the thigh muscles neither in the 3 polio patients with upper extremity involvement nor in the healthy control subjects and in patients with other spinal cord disorders of anterior horn cell.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is proposed that the electrical stimulation of the arm nerves produce interlimb descending muscle responses in the severely affected atrophic thigh muscles of the patients with late polio. This finding suggests that there might be a focal and/or specific loss of inhibitory interneurons between injured and normal motor neurons and increased facilitatory synaptic action at the end of long propriospinal descending fibers in the case of late poliomyelitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Ege University Medical School, 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Cumhur
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ertekin
authors.forename: Arzu Yagiz
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: On
authors.forename: Yeşim
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kirazli
authors.forename: Tülay
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kurt
authors.forename: Nevin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gürgör
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D001132:Arm / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000502:physiology*; D010543:Peroneal Nerve / Q000502:physiology; D016262:Postpoliomyelitis Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014897:Spinal Muscular Atrophies of Childhood / Q000503:physiopathology; D013848:Thigh / Q000502:physiology