Neurological Examination

  • | |

    Myotomes

    Myotomes are groups of muscles supplied by the motor fibers of a single spinal nerve root. A single neuron’s sensory fibers innervate a dermatome, which is a section of skin. Myocommata (plural: myocommata) is what separates myotomes. The part of a somite that turns into muscle during vertebrate development is called the myotome. Introduction Myotomes are spinal nerve roots that innervate a set of muscles (Greek: myo = muscle, tome = component, volume). When nerve radiculopathy is suspected, myotome testing is an important part of the neurological assessment. Since all skeletal muscles are innervated by nerves from several spinal cord levels, myotomes are even more difficult to evaluate than dermatomes. The somatic nervous system is composed of myotomes and is a component…

  • |

    Deep Tendon Reflex (DTR)

    Introduction The deep tendon reflex (DTR), initially identified by Wilhelm Heinrich Erb and Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal in 1875, is crucial for assessing and identifying neurologic disorders. Assessing neurologic diseases that impact afferent nerves, spinal cord synaptic connections, motor nerves, and descending motor pathways can be facilitated by deep tendon reflexes, also known as the…