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Automatic selection and feature extraction of motor-evoked potentials by transcranial magnetic stimulation in stroke patients

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Abstract

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) allows the assessment of stroke patients’ cortical excitability and corticospinal tract integrity, which provide information regarding motor function recovery. However, the extraction of features from motor-evoked potentials (MEP) elicited by TMS, such as amplitude and latency, is performed manually, increasing variability due to observer-dependent subjectivity. Therefore, an automatic methodology could improve MEP analysis, especially in stroke, which increases the difficulty of manual MEP measurements due to brain lesions. A methodology based on time-frequency features of stroke patients’ MEPs that allows to automatically select and extract MEP amplitude and latency is proposed. The method was validated using manual measurements, performed by three experts, computed from patients’ affected and unaffected hemispheres. Results showed a coincidence of 58.3 to 80% between automatic and manual MEP selection. There were no significant differences between the amplitudes and latencies computed by two of the experts with those obtained with the automatic method, for most comparisons. The median relative error of amplitudes and latencies computed by the automatic method was 5% and 23%, respectively. Therefore, the proposed method has the potential to reduce processing time and improve the computation of MEP features, by eliminating observer-dependent variability due to the subjectivity of manual measurements.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), from grants with numbers SALUD-2015-2-262061 and SALUD-2018-02-B-S-45803.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, Universidad La Salle, 09340, Mexico City, Mexico

    Jose E. Tecuapetla-Trejo

  2. Division of Research in Medical Engineering, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra”, 14389, Mexico City, Mexico

    Jessica Cantillo-Negrete & Ruben I. Carino-Escobar

  3. Neuroscience Division, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra”, 14389, Mexico City, Mexico

    Paul Carrillo-Mora

  4. Electrical Engineering Department, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Iztapalapa, 09340, Mexico City, Mexico

    Raquel Valdés-Cristerna & Ruben I. Carino-Escobar

  5. Unidad de Transtornos de Movimiento y Sueño (TMS), Hospital General “Dr. Manuel Gea Gonzales”, 14080, Mexico City, Mexico

    Emmanuel Ortega-Robles & Oscar Arias-Carrion

  6. Centro de Innovación Médica Aplicada (CIMA), Hospital General “Dr. Manuel Gea González”, 14080, Mexico City, Mexico

    Emmanuel Ortega-Robles & Oscar Arias-Carrion

Authors
  1. Jose E. Tecuapetla-Trejo
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  2. Jessica Cantillo-Negrete
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  3. Paul Carrillo-Mora
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  4. Raquel Valdés-Cristerna
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  5. Emmanuel Ortega-Robles
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  6. Oscar Arias-Carrion
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  7. Ruben I. Carino-Escobar
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Jessica Cantillo-Negrete and Ruben I. Carino-Escobar. Methodology: Jose E. Tecuapetla-Trejo, Jessica Cantillo-Negrete, Paul Carrillo-Mora, Emmanuel Ortega-Robles, and Ruben I. Carino-Escobar. Formal analysis and investigation: Jose E. Tecuapetla-Trejo, Ruben I. Carino-Escobar, and Raquel Valdés-Cristerna. Writing - original draft preparation: Jose E. Tecuapetla-Trejo and Ruben I. Carino-Escobar. Writing - review and editing: Jessica Cantillo-Negrete, Paul Carrillo-Mora, Raquel Valdés-Cristerna, Emmanuel Ortega-Robles, and Oscar Arias-Carrion. Funding acquisition: Jessica Cantillo-NegreteEditing: Oscar Arias-Carrion

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ruben I. Carino-Escobar.

Ethics declarations

This research was approved by the Research and Ethics Committees of the National Institute of Rehabilitation Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra with number 36/15. All patients signed an informed consent approved by the Ethics Committee of the National Institute of Rehabilitation Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Tecuapetla-Trejo, J.E., Cantillo-Negrete, J., Carrillo-Mora, P. et al. Automatic selection and feature extraction of motor-evoked potentials by transcranial magnetic stimulation in stroke patients. Med Biol Eng Comput 59, 449–456 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-021-02315-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-021-02315-z

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