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    • #490260
      Harriet Hill
      Participant

      Hey Chrissy, so sorry if I missed this in your lecture. I am reviewing AIS exam scoring. On Numbers five and six I noticed the motor corresponds to the lowest intact non-key motor group, despite they’re being Motor scores for key muscles in the lumbar motor group. Is this the rule we follow? Even in the case number six where it is 5/5 all the way down to S1? I got a little confused by this. Why would we rely on non-key muscle groups, when there are key muscle groups that are scored? Thank you!

    • #490281

      Hi Harriet,
      In these cases, we are not looking at non-key motor groups to determine motor level. We are actually deferring to the sensory level. This is one of the trickier concepts of the ASIA exam. Because there is no myotome testing for the trunk, we have to make assumptions about this region – and the ASIA is standardized to make conservative assumptions. In regions with no formal muscle test (T2-L1), motor function is presumed to be the same as sensory function if testable motor function above that level is also normal. So, even if motor scores are normal in all testable regions (upper and lower extremity), if sensation is impaired between T2 and L1, the motor level is the lowest level with intact sensation. This is also outlined in the “Steps in Classification” section on page 2 of the PDFs.

      Chrissy

    • #490282
      Harriet Hill
      Participant

      thank you!

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