Cervical magnetic stimulation of the Phrenic nerves in bilateral diaphragm paralysis

摘要

Cervical magnetic stimulation (CMS) produces a greater twitch transdiaphragmatic pressure (TwPdi) than electrical stimulation. This may be because CMS produces rib cage muscle activation, thus pro- ducing an inspiratory action independent of the diaphragm. Alternatively, CMS could merely stiffen the rib cage, allowing the diaphragm to act efficiently, by contracting against a stable rib cage. To ex- amine these two hypotheses we studied five patients with isolated bilateral diaphragm paralysis us- ing CMS and bilateral electrical phrenic stimulation (BES).