Trial reportEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2017
Repetitive nerve stimulation as a diagnostic aid for distinguishing cervical spondylotic amyotrophy from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Trial report in European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cervical spondylotic amyotrophy: a systematic review.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2019Pooled it
- The correlation between facet tropism and motor dysfunction of the upper limbs in patients with cervical spondylotic amyotrophy: an observational study.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025Observational
- Analysis of surgical treatment of cervical spondylotic amyotrophy.Frontiers in surgery · 2024Article
- Ultra-early amplitude decrement after repetitive nerve stimulation supports early neuromuscular junction injury in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a prospective cross-sectional study.Neural regeneration research · 2022Article
- Preoperative factors that predict fair outcomes following surgery in patients with proximal cervical spondylotic amyotrophy. A retrospective study.Spinal cord · 2020Article
- Can the Large-Scale Decrement in Repetitive Nerve Stimulation Be Used as an Exclusion Criterion for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis?Frontiers in neurology · 2020Article
- Repetitive Nerve Stimulation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.Chinese medical journal · 2018Article
- Influence of placement sites of the active recording electrode on CMAP configuration in the trapezius muscle.Clinical neurophysiology practice · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo identify and compare the features of compound muscle action potential (CMAP) decrements in repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS) in patients with cervical spondylotic amyotrophy (CSA) and in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
methodsThe cohort consisted of 43 CSA (distal-type to proximal-type ratio: 27-16) and 35 ALS patients. Five muscles, including abductor pollicis brevis (APB), abductor digiti minimi (ADM), biceps brachii (BB), middle deltoid (Del), and upper trapezius (Trap), were tested by 3-Hz RNS. Decrements greater than cutoff values (APB > 5.8%; ADM > 4.8%; BB > 5.2%; Del > 6%; Trap > 5.1%) determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were defined as abnormal, and the conventional criterion (≥10%) was also considered.
resultsA significant CMAP decrement (>cutoff values) was recorded from at least one tested muscle in 91.4% of ALS patients, and was most common in the proximal muscle, a finding that differed significantly from CSA patients (32.6%, P < 0.05). The application of cutoff values greatly improved the sensitivity of RNS over the conventional criterion (≥10%) for the detection of ALS (P < 0.05). The specificity of this technique remained higher when performing RNS in the proximal muscles, especially in the upper trapezius (AUC = 0.864, sensitivity = 0.643, and specificity = 1.000). The decrement percentages were significantly greater in the proximal muscles of ALS patients than in those of the CSA patients (P < 0.05). In addition, illness duration was not correlated with decrement percentage in either patient group, and no difference in the frequency of decrement among different ALS diagnostic categories was observed (P > 0.05).
conclusionsThe application of RNS, especially in proximal muscles, may provide a simple accurate and noninvasive supplementary test for distinguishing CSA from ALS, even in the early stage of these diseases. A combination of RNS, needle EMG, clinical features and cervical magnetic resonance imaging may yield sufficient diagnostic information to differentiate CSA and ALS.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.