Authors: Parker JL, Karantonis DM, Single PS, Obradovic M, Cousins MJ.
Source: Pain. 2011 Dec 19.
Parker et al. from Australia report compound action potentials in the human spinal cord during neurostimulation for pain relief.
The authors state that: "Electrical stimulation of the spinal cord provides effective pain relief to hundreds of thousands of chronic neuropathic pain sufferers. The therapy involves implantation of an electrode array into the epidural space of the subject and then stimulation of the dorsal column with electrical pulses. The stimulation depolarises axons and generates propagating action potentials that interfere with the perception of pain. Despite the long-term clinical experience with spinal cord stimulation, the mechanism of action is not understood, and no direct evidence of the properties of neurons being stimulated has been presented".
The authors report novel measurements
of evoked compound action potentials from the spinal cords of patients
undergoing stimulation for pain relief. The minimally invasive
recording technique they have developed provides data previously
obtained only through microelectrode techniques in spinal cords of
animals.
The authors state that: " The results reveal that Aß sensory nerve fibres are recruited at therapeutic stimulation levels and the Aß potential amplitude correlates with the degree of coverage of the painful area. Aß-evoked responses are not measurable below a threshold stimulation level, and their amplitude increases with increasing stimulation current. At high currents, additional late responses are observed. Our results contribute towards efforts to define the mechanism of spinal cord stimulation".
Link for the abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22188868
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