Spinal cord or the cauda equina activation by a newly developed magnetic coil : study of its mechanisms and its clinical application

脊神经根上的磁刺激可以为我们提供有关最近端周围神经节段的重要生理信息。然而，我们对这种刺激方法有两个问题。首先，我们不能通过腰椎磁模拟最大限度地激活脊神经运动根，因为腰-骶脊神经根位置较深。另一个问题是脊神经根或神经不能通过磁刺激在椎管内被激活。在这项研究中，我们开发了一种新的腰椎磁刺激方法来解决这些问题，使用了一个大的圆形线圈，是通常圆形线圈(垫圈)的两倍。用这种新方法，我们在大多数正常人中获得了对腰根刺激的最大反应，并激活了椎管内最近端的马尾神经或脊髓圆锥。。我们为这项新技术建立了规范的数据。我们通过检测一些脱髓鞘多发性神经病患者的最近端传导阻滞，展示了这种方法的临床实用性。

Magnetic stimulation over the spinal roots can give us important physiological information about the most proximal peripheral nerve segments. However, we have two problems for this stimulation method. First, we are not able to activate the spinal motor roots supramaximally by lumbar magnetic simulation because of the deep location of lumbo-sacral spinal roots. The other problem is that spinal roots or nerves are not activated in the spinal canal by magnetic stimulaion. In this investigation, we developed a new lumbar magnetic stimulation method to tackle these problems using a large round coil, twice as large as the usual round coil (MATS coil). With this new method, we obtained supramaximal responses to lumbar roots stimulation in most of normal subjects and activated the most proximal cauda equine or the conus medullari in the spinal canal. . We established the normative data for this new technique. We showed clinical utility of this method by detecting the most proximal part conduction block in some patients with demyelinating polyneuropathy.