Abstract
PurposeReliability of motor-evoked potential threshold and amplitude measurement of upper limb muscles is important when detecting changes in cortical excitability. The objective of this study was to investigate intra-rater, test–retest reliability and minimal detectable change of resting motor threshold and amplitude of a proximal and distal upper limb muscles, anterior deltoid and distal extensor digitorum communis in healthy adults.MethodTo measure motor-evoked potential responses, transcranial magnetic stimulation was interfaced with electromyography and neuronavigation equipment. Two measurements were conducted on day 1 and a third measurement three days later. Reliability was analysed using intraclass correlation coefficients.ResultsTwenty participants completed the study. Excellent intra-rater (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.91 (extensor digitorum), 0.94 (anterior deltoid)) and good to excellent test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.69 (anterior deltoid), 0.84 (extensor digitorum)) was found for resting motor threshold. Minimal detectable change for resting motor threshold was found at 10.95% (extensor digitorum) and 16.35% (anterior deltoid) between first and third measurements. Motor-evoked potential amplitude of extensor digitorum communis had fair to good intra-rater (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.50) and test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.65).ConclusionsOur results suggest that resting motor threshold is a reliable neurophysiological measure even for proximal shoulder muscles. Future research should further explore the reliability of motor-evoked potential amplitude before integration into neurological rehabilitation.
Highlights
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive form of brain stimulation, can be used both as a corticomotor intervention and neurophysiological outcome measure
TMS allows the study of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) resting thresholds and amplitudes of the upper limb as a measure of changes in corticomotor excitability of healthy people and people with neurological conditions when combined with electromyography (EMG).[1]
The anterior deltoid (AD) resting motor threshold (RMT) was higher than the extensor digitorum communis (EDC) RMT
Summary
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive form of brain stimulation, can be used both as a corticomotor intervention and neurophysiological outcome measure. Due to prominent cortical representations, investigation of the level of reliability of neurophysiological outcome measures has been more popular with distal than proximal muscles.[3,4,5] the study of the psychometric properties of the outcome measure with proximal muscle areas is equivocal valuable.[6]
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