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

Abstract EN

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.