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. 2019 Jun 4:13:185.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00185. eCollection 2019.

Age, Height, and Sex on Motor Evoked Potentials: Translational Data From a Large Italian Cohort in a Clinical Environment

Mariagiovanna Cantone  1 , Giuseppe Lanza  2   3 , Luisa Vinciguerra  4 , Valentina Puglisi  4 , Riccardo Ricceri  5 , Francesco Fisicaro  6 , Carla Vagli  6 , Rita Bella  6 , Raffaele Ferri  3 , Giovanni Pennisi  2 , Vincenzo Di Lazzaro  7 , Manuela Pennisi  8
Affiliations

Age, Height, and Sex on Motor Evoked Potentials: Translational Data From a Large Italian Cohort in a Clinical Environment

Mariagiovanna Cantone et al. Front Hum Neurosci. .

Abstract

Introduction: Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are known to be susceptible to several sources of variability. However, conflicting evidences on individual characteristics in relatively small sample sizes have been reported. We investigated the effect of age, height, and sex on MEPs of the motor cortex and spinal roots in a large cohort.

Methods: A total of 587 subjects clinically and neuroradiologically intact were included. MEPs were recorded during mild tonic contraction through a circular coil applied over the "hot spot" of the first dorsal interosseous and tibialis anterior muscles (TAs), bilaterally. Central motor conduction time (CMCT) was estimated as the difference between MEP cortical latency and the peripheral motor conduction time (PMCT) by cervical or lumbar magnetic stimulation. Peak-to-peak MEP amplitude to cortical stimulation and right-to-left difference of each parameter were also measured.

Results: After Bonferroni correction, general linear (multiple) regression analysis showed that both MEP cortical latency and PMCT at four limbs positively correlated with age and height. At lower limbs, an independent effect of sex on the same measures was also observed (with females showing smaller values than males). CMCT correlated with both age (negatively) and height (positively) when analyzed by a single regression; however, with a multiple regression analysis this significance disappeared, due to the correction for the multicollinearity within the dataset.

Conclusion: Physical individual features need to be considered for a more accurate and meaningful MEPs interpretation. Both in clinical practice and in research setting, patients and controls should be matched for age, height, and sex.

Keywords: central motor conduction time; motor evoked potentials; physical variables; reference values; transcranial magnetic stimulation; translational neurophysiology.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Three-dimensional histogram of the distribution of the number of subjects per age and height.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Correlation between age and right first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDI) cortical latency of the motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in each age subgroup of participants, divided by sex. The continuous line is the regression line while the two dashed lines represent the limits of the area within which the 95% of points are expected.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Correlation between age and left first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDI) cortical latency of the motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in each age subgroup of participants, divided by sex. The continuous line is the regression line while the two dashed lines represent the limits of the area within which the 95% of points are expected.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Correlation between age and right tibialis anterior muscle (TA) cortical latency of the motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in each age subgroup of participants, divided by sex. The continuous line is the regression line while the two dashed lines represent the limits of the area within which the 95% of points are expected.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Correlation between age and left tibialis anterior muscle (TA) cortical latency of the motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in each age subgroup of participants, divided by sex. The continuous line is the regression line while the two dashed lines represent the limits of the area within which the 95% of points are expected.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Correlation between age and right first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDI) peripheral motor conduction time (PMCT) in each age subgroup of participants, divided by sex. The continuous line is the regression line while the two dashed lines represent the limits of the area within which the 95% of points are expected.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Correlation between age and left first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDI) peripheral motor conduction time (PMCT) in each age subgroup of participants, divided by sex. The continuous line is the regression line while the two dashed lines represent the limits of the area within which the 95% of points are expected.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Correlation between age and right tibialis anterior muscle (TA) peripheral motor conduction time (PMCT) in each age subgroup of participants, divided by sex. The continuous line is the regression line while the two dashed lines represent the limits of the area within which the 95% of points are expected.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Correlation between age and left tibialis anterior muscle (TA) peripheral motor conduction time (PMCT) in each age subgroup of participants, divided by sex. The continuous line is the regression line while the two dashed lines represent the limits of the area within which the 95% of points are expected.
FIGURE 10
FIGURE 10
Correlation between height and right or left first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDI) and right or left tibialis anterior muscle (TA) central motor conduction time (CMCT) in participants, divided by sex. The continuous line is the regression line while the two dashed lines represent the limits of the area within which the 95% of points are expected.
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