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Fatigue associated EMG behavior of the first dorsal interosseous and adductor pollicis muscles in different groups of subjects
Author(s) -
Zijdewind Inge,
Kernell Daniel
Publication year - 1994
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/mus.880170912
Subject(s) - adductor pollicis muscle , dorsum , electromyography , anatomy , stimulation , muscle fibre , adductor muscles , medicine , ulnar nerve , physical medicine and rehabilitation , skeletal muscle , elbow
We have studied the fatigue‐associated behavior of surface EMG in two histochemically different muscles of the hand: first dorsal interosseous (FDI) and adductor pollicis (AP; relatively more type I fibers in AP than in FDI). During a fatigue test evoked by electrical stimulation of the ulnar nerve, the mean amplitudes of compound muscle action potentials (M‐waves) exhibited the same overall pattern for both muscles: a rapid phase of potentiation followed by a gradual decline. However, if the group of subjects was subdivided on the basis of hand length, significant differences emerged in the reactions of AP: in large hands, no fatigue‐associated M‐wave decline was seen, whereas in small hands a distinct decline was observed. A possible explanation for this phenomenon might be the presence of a greater amount of EMG contamination from other muscles in smaller hands. In the supposedly “cleaner” recordings from larger hands, significant differences between FDI and AP were observed with regard to their fatigue‐associated EMG reactions (M‐wave depression in FDI but not in AP). The direction of these differences was in accordance with expectations on the basis of known differences in histochemical fiber type composition. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.