Motor evoked responses from the thigh muscles to the stimulation of the upper limb nerves in patients with late poliomyelitis.
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.
Ertekin
Cumhur
C
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Ege University Medical School, 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey.
On
Arzu Yagiz
AY
Kirazli
Yeşim
Y
Kurt
Tülay
T
Gürgör
Nevin
N
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