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Intraday and interday reliability of pelvic floor muscles electromyography in continent woman
Author(s) -
Scharschmidt Ronja,
Derlien Steffen,
Siebert Tobias,
Herbsleb Marco,
Stutzig Norman
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
neurourology and urodynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.918
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1520-6777
pISSN - 0733-2467
DOI - 10.1002/nau.24187
Subject(s) - medicine , electromyography , reproducibility , isometric exercise , reliability (semiconductor) , pelvic floor , urinary incontinence , physical medicine and rehabilitation , physical therapy , urology , surgery , statistics , mathematics , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
Aims Vaginal surface electromyography (sEMG) is a tool used for the diagnosis and therapeutic intervention of urinary incontinence. Current sEMG systems differ in regard to electrode arrangement and data reproducibility. The aim of this study was to determine the intrasession, intraday, and interday reliabilities of sEMG parameters using a probe with circumferential electrode‐position. Methods The intrasession, intraday, and interday reliabilities of maximum isometric voluntary contractions (MVC) of the pelvic floor muscles were assessed for 19 healthy continent women. Three sEMG parameters that are used to describe muscle activity were verified: maximal EMG (EMG max ), mean over 500 ms around EMG max (EMG A0.5 ), and mean over 2 seconds during MVC plateau (EMG A2‐4 ). Relative and absolute reliability parameters were calculated, and the statistical methods described by Bland and Altman were applied to the data. Results We observed substantial reliabilities for all obtained parameters (EMG max , EMG A2‐4 , and EMG A0.5 ) in regard to the intrasession measurements (ICC = 0.93‐0.97; CI = 0.86‐0.99). Overall, the intraday reliability has been moderate (ICC = 0.64‐0.75; CI = 0.27‐0.90). EMG max (ICC = 0.75; CI = 0.45‐0.90) and EMG A2‐4 (ICC = 0.73, CI = 0.42‐0.89) were higher than EMG A0.5 (ICC = 0.64; CI = 0.27‐0.85). However, the interday reliability was only fair for EMG max (ICC = 0.48; CI = 0.04‐0.77) and EMG A0.5 (ICC = 0.51; CI = 0.07‐0.78) but moderate for EMG A2‐4 (ICC = 0.65; CI = 0.28‐0.85). Conclusions This intrasession, intraday, and interday reliability results are similar to the results reported in the literature using probes with longitudinally oriented bars. The mean sEMG signal over 2 seconds (EMG A2‐4 ) exhibited the highest reliability and is recommended for further studies. The interday reliability might be enhanced by considering the menstruation cycle.