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Motor unit size estimation of enlarged motor units with surface electromyography
Author(s) -
Roeleveld Karin,
Sandberg Arne,
Stålberg Erik V.,
Stegeman Dick F.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
muscle and nerve
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.025
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1097-4598
pISSN - 0148-639X
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4598(199807)21:7<878::aid-mus5>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - motor unit , electromyography , biceps , motor unit recruitment , electrodiagnosis , anatomy , muscle contraction , physical medicine and rehabilitation , medicine , biomedical engineering , cardiology
Surface EMG is hardly used to estimate motor unit (MU) characteristics, while its non‐invasiveness is less stressful for patients and allows multi‐electrode recordings to investigate different sites of the muscle and MU. The present study compares motor unit potentials (MUPs) obtained with surface EMG and macro EMG during voluntary contraction of the biceps brachii muscle of patients with enlarged MUs caused by prior poliomyelitis. Averaged surface MUPs were obtained by means of needle EMG (SMUP1) and surface EMG (SMUP2) triggering. The MUPs area and peak amplitudes correlated well when comparing the macro MUP and SMUP1 of the same MUs. When MU populations of different patients were compared, the SMUP1s and SMUP2s were equally sensitive to pathology as macro MUPs. In this, the late non‐propagating positive wave (only present in unipolar recordings) is more robust than the triphasic propagating wave. Therefore, surface EMG can be used for detecting enlarged MUs. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 21:878–886, 1998.