TY - GEN
T1 - Using surface electromyography to detect changes in innervation zones pattern after human cervical spinal cord injury
AU - Afsharipour, Babak
AU - Sandhu, Milap S.
AU - Rasool, Ghulam
AU - Suresh, Nina L.
AU - Rymer, William Z.
N1 - Funding Information:
Research supported by NIDILRR grant H133P110013.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 IEEE.
PY - 2016/10/13
Y1 - 2016/10/13
N2 - Human spinal cord injuries (SCI) disrupt the pathways between brain and spinal cord, resulting in substantial impairment and loss of function. Currently, we do not have the ability to precisely quantify the 'functional' level of motor injury. The aim of this study is to determine if high-density surface electromyography imaging (SEI) can be used to characterize the location and extent of the spinal lesion. SEI is a safe and non-invasive technique, which uses several electrodes to provide a map of muscle activity. We applied the SEI technique to characterize muscle activity in individuals with chronic incomplete cervical SCI. Surface electromyogram signals (sEMG) from Biceps Brachii (BB) were recorded at submaximal levels (20%, 40%, and 60%) of maximum voluntary contractions (MVC) during isometric elbow flexion, shoulder flexion, and elbow abduction in two individuals with SCI. Through time-domain analysis of the collected data, we detected signs of de-innervation and re-innervations by analyzing the innervation zones (IZ) on the left and right BB muscles. We found that the distribution of IZs was different between the two sides. In addition, analysis of sEMG data collected at rest (no voluntary contraction) showed evidence of superficial active motor units that were active during rest (in the absence of spasms). These findings highlight the potential of SEI technique as a potential clinical tool to quantitatively describe the extent of the damage to motor spinal circuitry, and provide added precision to the clinical examinations and radiological findings.
AB - Human spinal cord injuries (SCI) disrupt the pathways between brain and spinal cord, resulting in substantial impairment and loss of function. Currently, we do not have the ability to precisely quantify the 'functional' level of motor injury. The aim of this study is to determine if high-density surface electromyography imaging (SEI) can be used to characterize the location and extent of the spinal lesion. SEI is a safe and non-invasive technique, which uses several electrodes to provide a map of muscle activity. We applied the SEI technique to characterize muscle activity in individuals with chronic incomplete cervical SCI. Surface electromyogram signals (sEMG) from Biceps Brachii (BB) were recorded at submaximal levels (20%, 40%, and 60%) of maximum voluntary contractions (MVC) during isometric elbow flexion, shoulder flexion, and elbow abduction in two individuals with SCI. Through time-domain analysis of the collected data, we detected signs of de-innervation and re-innervations by analyzing the innervation zones (IZ) on the left and right BB muscles. We found that the distribution of IZs was different between the two sides. In addition, analysis of sEMG data collected at rest (no voluntary contraction) showed evidence of superficial active motor units that were active during rest (in the absence of spasms). These findings highlight the potential of SEI technique as a potential clinical tool to quantitatively describe the extent of the damage to motor spinal circuitry, and provide added precision to the clinical examinations and radiological findings.
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U2 - 10.1109/EMBC.2016.7591545
DO - 10.1109/EMBC.2016.7591545
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 28269106
AN - SCOPUS:85009076632
T3 - Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
SP - 3757
EP - 3760
BT - 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016
Y2 - 16 August 2016 through 20 August 2016
ER -