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Control of leg-powered paraplegic cycling using stimulation of the lumbo-sacral anterior spinal nerve roots.

We investigated leg-powered cycling in a recumbent tricycle for a paraplegic using functional electrical stimulation (FES) with the lumbo-sacral anterior root stimulator implant (LARSI). A female complete T9 paraplegic had a stimulator for the anterior L2 to S2 spinal roots (bilaterally) implanted in 1994. She was provided with equipment for daily FES cycling exercise at home. The cycling controller applies a pattern of stimulation in each of 16 crank angle phases. A 7-bit shaft encoder measures the crank angle with adequate precision. Each pattern was originally chosen to give the greatest propulsive force in that position when there was no motion. However, dynamically, some reduction in co-contraction is needed; also the patterns are applied with a preset advance time. Maximal power is obtained with an advance of 250 ms, which compensates for muscle response delay and accommodates changes in cadence (from about 25 to 85 rpm). With this system, she has cycled 1.2 km at a time on gently undulating road. We found that spinal root stimulation gives sufficient control over the muscles in the legs to produce a fluid cycling gait. We propose that root stimulation for leg cycling exercise may be a practicable and valuable function for paraplegics following spinal cord injury.

Adult↗

[Fractionated determination of central motor conduction times using stimulation of the cortex, spinal tract and spinal nerve roots: possibilities and limits].

Two different approaches of determining central motor conduction times were investigated. Both methods were based on calculations of latency differences of muscle compound action potentials. First, using multilocal stimulation of the descending motor system at different levels (motor cortex, motor tracts at spinal level, motor roots) and recording from one reference muscle (Figs. 1 and 2). Second, using unilocal stimulation over the motor cortex and recording from a number of paravertebral muscles at levels from C7 to L5 (Figs. 3 and 4). With multilocal stimulation of the motor pathways, muscle response potentials are observed which differ in amplitude, duration and configuration depending on the site of stimulation (Figs. 1 and 2). This finding points to the incongruency of excited fibres within the descending motor pathways. The causes underlying this phenomenon and the resulting limitations for determining central motor conduction times are discussed. The new approach using recordings of cortically evoked responses on different levels in paravertebral muscles does not suffer from the methodical limitations of the multilocal stimulation and may be of higher clinical validity for the localization of circumscript spinal processes.

Adult↗

[The effect of hormones on the rate of axonal transport in the ventral spinal nerve roots of rats].

The Wistar male rats in the age of 8-12 months were injected 7-8 microliter of aqueous solution of L-leucine-14C (specific activity 12543 megaBq/mmol) into the area of the ventral horn at the level of L5,6 segment of the spinal cord. The study of radioactivity in various sections of the respective frontal root was performed after one hour. It was found that estradiol dipropionate, testosterone propionate, insulin and small doses of thyroxin increased the axonal transport of the labelled material, while hydrocortisone, large doses of thyroxin, castration and thyroidectomy caused its delay. It is concluded that the axonal transport is under a pronounced hormonal control.

Animals↗