Sympathetic skin response due to spinal cord injury

English Keywords:Spinal cord injury  Sympathetic skin response  Autonomic dysreflexia

English Abstract:

  【Abstract】 Objective：To investigate the sympathetic skin response（SSR） due to spinal cord injury（SCI） of different degree and to identify the value of SSR on assessing the autonomic function after SCI.Method：There were 10 patients with complete SCI（3 above T5，7 between T8 and T11） and with the mean course of 6.2 months termed as CS group and 10 patients with incomplete SCI（5 above T6，5 between T7 and L3） and with the mean course of 11.1 months termed as IS group.Meanwhile，20 normal healthy subjects were tested as control H group.All patients lied supine on the bed with the electrical stimulation in left supra orbital nerve，median nerve and tibial nerve respectively to induce SSR.At the same time，the surface recording electrodes were set at the bilateral palms of two hands and soles of feet.The rate of SSR was recorded in each group.Result：The SSR in the 20 normal subjects always presented regardless of the position of electrode.After stimulating left supra orbital nerve with each record electrode（left/right palms and left/right soles），the number of patients presenting SSR was 7，7，3 and 3 respectively，while for median nerve was 7，7，2，2 and for tibial nerve was 2，2，1，1 in CS group.The presenting rates of SSR in CS group decreased more compared to H group（P<0.05） regardless of the electrode position.In IS group，after stimulating left supra orbital nerve，median nerve and tibia nerve，the number of patients presenting SSR was 9，9，8，7；9，9，6，6 and 7，7，5，5 respectively.The rates of sole-SSR when stimulating left median nerve and sole-SSR/palm-SSR when stimulating tibial nerve in IS group decreased more compared with H group（P<0.05）.Conclusion：The rates of SSR in the SCI patients decrease，which can be used to assess the autonomic function in SCI patients.