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Assessment of Diaphragm EMG Activity Recovery Following Upper Cervical Spinal Cord Injury
Author(s) -
Khurram Obaid,
Vasdev Ranveer,
Sieck Gary,
Mantilla Carlos
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.659.9
Subject(s) - motor unit , spinal cord , medicine , spinal cord injury , electromyography , anesthesia , diaphragm (acoustics) , paralysis , cord , physical medicine and rehabilitation , anatomy , surgery , physics , psychiatry , acoustics , loudspeaker
Motor units are normally recruited in an orderly manner in order to accomplish ventilatory behaviors. The duration of non‐stationarity in electromyographic (EMG) bursts provides an estimate of the period of motor unit recruitment. Motor unit recruitment also reflects central drive, which can be estimated by the root‐mean‐squared (RMS) EMG value 75 ms after the EMG burst onset (RMS 75 ). Following unilateral diaphragm muscle (DIAm) paralysis induced by upper cervical spinal cord hemisection at C 2 (SH), there is gradual spontaneous recovery of ipsilateral EMG activity. Increased activity of the contralateral (uninjured) DIAm is sufficient to maintain ventilation following SH. We hypothesized that changes in central drive can be estimated by the period of non‐stationarity and RMS 75 from the contralateral DIAm EMG following ipsilateral paralysis and spontaneous recovery of DIAm EMG activity. We found that the duration of non‐stationarity increased to a greater extent in rats that did not recover ipsilateral EMG activity by 14 days post‐SH (D14) compared to those that did. In addition, we found that RMS 75 values following SH were reduced in rats displaying recovery of ipsilateral DIAm EMG activity compared to rats that did not. Collectively, these results suggest that the duration of non‐stationarity and RMS 75 can be used to evaluate recovery of ipsilateral DIAm function following spinal cord injury.