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DIFFERENCES OF THE NERVOUS MOTOR CONDUCTION VELOCITY AT GIRLS AND BOYS PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES

Denisa Enescu Bieru, Germina Cosma, Mirela Lucia Calina, Mihai Dragomir, Oana Neamtu, Marius Cristian Neamtu, Luminita Brabiescu Calinescu

Abstract

Background Our study aimed the neurophysiologic testing, by measuring the nervous motor conduction velocity, an objective index of peripheral motor nerve function, beside the motor response, in order to emphasize its significant differences at girls and boys professional athletes. Methods At study had participated a group formed of 30 boys and girls, with an average age of 19 years, which practice one of the following professional sports: fence, volleyball or handball, for maximum 12 years, sports where the use of upper limbs is different and the training type is characteristic. The nervous motor conduction velocity was measured using the Nihon-Kohden MEB 9100 device, by stimulating the median nerve, at three levels: proximal (bicipital groove = level 3), elbow (level 2) and distal (radiocarpal joint = level 1) successively, at both arms. The motor response was recorded at abductor pollicis brevis muscle, using surface electrodes placed at a distance of at least 20 millimeters between them. Results Were analyzed the following parameters: latency, duration, amplitude, area and interval (differences of the latencies from different segments of the same upper limb) and were statistically processed using Student and Pearson tests. The obtained results showed significant statistic differences at girls-boys comparison, both, at left hand and right one, for proximal segment, for distal segment the mentioned differences were recorded only at right hand. Conclusions The analyze of motor response and values of nervous motor conduction velocity, emphasized highly significant statistic differences at studied girls and boys professional athletes, for amplitude and area parameters at elbow and bicipital groove levels and for latency in case of proximal stimulation. Measurement of nervous motor conduction velocity reveals its extremely important contribution for emphasizing the neurophysiologic particularities at girls and boys professional athletes.

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