Abstract
Contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) represent a neurophysiological approach to assess conduction in the spinothalamic tract. The aim of this study was to establish normative values of CHEPs acquired from cervical dermatomes (C4, C6, C8) and examine the potential confounds of age, sex, and height. 101 (49 male) healthy subjects of three different age groups (18–40, 41–60, and 61–80 years) were recruited. Normal (NB, 35–52 °C) followed by increased (IB, 42–52 °C) baseline stimulation protocols were employed to record CHEPs. Multi-variate linear models were used to investigate the effect of age, sex, and height on the CHEPs parameters (i.e., N2 latency, N2P2 amplitude, rating of perceived intensity). Compared to NB, IB stimulation reduced latency jitter within subjects, yielding larger N2P2 amplitudes, and decreased inter-subject N2 latency variability. Age was associated with reduced N2P2 amplitude and prolonged N2 latency. After controlling for height, male subjects had significantly longer N2 latencies than females during IB stimulation. The study provides normative CHEPs data in a large cohort of healthy subjects from segmentally examined cervical dermatomes. Age and sex were identified as important factors contributing to N2 latency and N2P2 amplitude. The normative data will improve the diagnosis of spinal cord pathologies.
Highlights
Contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) represent a neurophysiological approach to assess conduction in the spinothalamic tract
We examined CHEPs following thermal stimulation of low and high intensity in a large cohort of healthy individuals using standard anatomical locations corresponding to cervical (C4, C6, and C8) spinal segments
Out of 105 healthy subjects enrolled in the study, four had to be excluded due to: (1) technical problems during data acquisition (n = 3) and (2) intolerance of the contact heat stimuli applied (n = 1)
Summary
Contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) represent a neurophysiological approach to assess conduction in the spinothalamic tract. The goal of the present study was to apply an advanced testing protocol for establishing normative values of CHEPs form cervical dermatomes These values are imperative to accurately determine when a recording in a patient with suspected spinal cord disorder (traumatic and non-traumatic) can be deemed “pathological”, and to assess potential confounding variables, such as height, age, and psychological factors. To this end, we examined CHEPs following thermal stimulation of low and high intensity in a large cohort of healthy individuals using standard anatomical locations corresponding to cervical (C4, C6, and C8) spinal segments
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