Restoration Methods of Respiratory Function for Spinal Cord Injury

Table 2

Functional evaluation of the phrenic nerve and diaphragm [31–33].

Method	Implementation process	Evaluation criteria
Nerve conduction time	Transcutaneous electrical stimulation with a unipolar needle electrode on the neck to observe the action potential time of diaphragm electromyography	7.5∼9 ms [31]
X-ray fluoroscopy	Electrical stimulation of phrenic nerve to observe the descending degree of the diaphragm by X-ray fluoroscopy	>5 cm [32] (5–8 cm)
Transdiaphragm pressure	Calculating the difference between abdominal pressure and pleural pressure by balloon catheter placed in oesophagus and stomach	Unilateral pacing: 10 cm H2O [33]