Associations of Upper Limb Somatosensory Evoked Potential and Motor Evoked Potential with Upper Limb Function and Activities of Daily Living Recovery in Subacute Stroke Patients : A Correlation and Regression-Based Study

This study aimed to investigate the associations between upper limb somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) and motor evoked potential (MEP) status and functional recovery in patients with subacute stroke. A total of 111 patients who underwent SEP and MEP testing within three months of stroke onset were retrospectively analyzed. Functional outcomes were assessed using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Upper Limb (FMA-U/L), Box and Block Test (BBT), Functional Independence Measure (FIM), and the Korean Modified Barthel Index (K-MBI). Correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were performed to examine the relationships between SEP and MEP status and changes in functional outcomes during inpatient rehabilitation. The results showed that MEP was significantly associated with improvements in BBT and K-MBI scores, while SEP significantly predicted changes in FIM and K-MBI scores. Neither SEP nor MEP showed significant predictive power for changes in FMA-U/L scores. Among all models, baseline scores were the strongest predictors of recovery in FMA-U/L and K-MBI, while treatment duration contributed significantly to BBT improvement. Scatterplot analysis further confirmed moderate correlations between predicted and actual changes, particularly in K-MBI and FMA-U/L outcomes. These findings suggest that SEP and MEP provide distinct and domain-specific prognostic information for upper limb recovery in subacute stroke. Specifically, MEP may be useful in predicting hand function and ADL performance, while SEP may better reflect the potential for overall functional independence. These results support the complementary use of neurophysiological assessments in developing individualized rehabilitation strategies.