A novel reflex analysis of healthy and spinal cord-injured individuals

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) has a drastic effect on the quality of life of those affected. There is thus a great need for new knowledge that may increase their quality of life. The goal of this research was to develop and set up a measurement system for exact measurements of times between events in a patellar reflex test and a transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) and compare the two in healthy and spinal cord-injured individuals. 21 individuals with a healthy nervous system and 2 spinal cord-injured individuals were subjected to the patellar reflex test and tSCS. The patellar reflex of one individual with a complete SCI at vertebras C6-C7 after an accident was delayed by 24% compared with the healthy subjects, while the reflex time of the other SCI individual, who had cancer in vertebra T3, was shortened by 23%. There was also a difference in the reflex between the patellar reflex test and the tSCS due to action potential conduction distance. In this study, a processing method was created for comparing muscle signals generated by patellar strikes or electrical stimulation to the posterior nerve roots. Data from the subjects with central nervous system lesions showed characteristic differences from reference data.