Visualization of the electrical activity of the cauda equina using a magnetospinography system in healthy subjects.

Objective: To establish a method to measure cauda equina action fields (CEAFs) and visualize the electrical activities of the cauda equina in a broadly aged group of healthy adults.

Methods: Using a 124-channel magnetospinography (MSG) system with superconducting interference devices, the CEAFs of 43 healthy volunteers (22-64 years of age) were measured after stimulation of the peroneal nerve at the knee. Reconstructed currents were obtained from the CEAFs and superimposed on the X-ray image.

Magnetospinography visualizes electrophysiological activity in the cervical spinal cord.

Diagnosis of nervous system disease is greatly aided by functional assessments and imaging techniques that localize neural activity abnormalities. Electrophysiological methods are helpful but often insufficient to locate neural lesions precisely. One proposed noninvasive alternative is magnetoneurography (MNG); we have developed MNG of the spinal cord (magnetospinography, MSG).

Efficacy of biphasic transcranial electric stimulation in intraoperative motor evoked potential monitoring for cervical compression myelopathy.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from consecutive patients undergoing 2 methods of transcranial electrical motor evoked potential (TCE-MEP) monitoring during cervical spine surgery.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of biphasic transcranial electric stimulation, the deviation rate, amplitude of TCE-MEPs, complications, and sensitivity and specificity of TCE-MEP monitoring were compared between the biphasic and conventional monophasic stimulation methods.

Summary Of Background Data: With biphasic stimulation, unlike monophasic stimulation, measurement time can be reduced considerably because a single stimulation elicits bilateral responses almost simultaneously.

Removal of stimulus-induced artifacts in functional spinal cord imaging.

This paper develops a novel method to reduce the influence of stimulus-induced artifacts in functional spinal cord imaging. The developed method employes a two-step procedure. The first step acquires artifact data, which contain artifacts but do not contain spinal cord evoked magnetic field (SCEF).

Increase in paravertebral muscle activity in lumbar kyphosis patients by surface electromyography compared with lumbar spinal canal stenosis patients and healthy volunteers.

Study Design: Paravertebral muscle activity measurement by surface electromyography (EMG) in lumbar degenerative patients and healthy volunteers.

Objective: Muscle activity was tested in the standing position, and the influence of low back pain and alignment of the lumbar spine was assessed in the patients with lumbar kyphosis (LDK) or canal stenosis.

Summary Of Background Data: The number of kyphosis patients has increased as the population has grown older.

Warning thresholds on the basis of origin of amplitude changes in transcranial electrical motor-evoked potential monitoring for cervical compression myelopathy.

Study Design: A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from consecutive patients undergoing transcranial electrical motor-evoked potential (TCE-MEP: compound muscle action potentials) monitoring during cervical spine surgery. OBJECTIVE.: To divide the warning threshold of TCE-MEP amplitude changes on the basis of origin into the spinal tract and spinal segments and decide warning thresholds for each.