PRONATOR TERES REFLEX - RELIABILITY AND NORMAL VALUE

The pronator reflex has been used clinically and electrophysiologicall y to evaluate the sixth and seventh cervical roots (C-6, C-7). This ha s been proven to be the result of stretching the pronator teres muscle . We examined 25 healthy individuals with surface electromyogram to es tablish electrophysiologically the reproducibility and reliability of this reflex, in addition to finding the 95% confidence interval (C.I.) for the latency for both males and females and to correlate if with t he arm length. Standard procedure was used for all people. To elicit t he pronator teres reflex, the volar report of the distal radius was st ruck by the hammer with the forearm in neutral position and the elbow flexed at 90 degrees. The response was pronation of the forearm. A rep roducible diphasic response was found in all individuals. The mean lat ency was 15.9 (+/- 1.3) ms with the 95% C.I. 16.8 for females and 17.4 (+/- 1.4) ms with the 95% C.I. 18.7 for males. The data were collecte d to be used for further evaluation of C-6, C-7 radiculopathy.