Objective: Reflexive and active control of the external anal sphincter (EAS) is essential for maintaining regulated colonic functions. Anorectal dysfunction, often related to compromised function of the EAS, is one of the major complaints in patients. Currently, the clinical diagnosis of anorectal dysfunction includes manometry, motor latency test, and single fiber electromyography (EMG). Howev...

The objective of this study was to apply a novel multidimensional motor unit number index (MD-MUNIX) technique to examine hand muscles in patients with incomplete cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). The MD-MUNIX was estimated from the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) and different levels of surface interference pattern electromyogram (EMG) at multiple directions of voluntary isometric mus...

OBJECTIVE To establish within-subject reliability of motor unit number estimates (MUNEs) and quantitative MU analysis using decomposition-based quantitative electromyography (DQEMG). METHODS Following the acquisition of a maximum M-wave, needle and surface-detected EMG signals were collected during contractions of the first dorsal interrosseous (FDI) and biceps brachii (BB). DQEMG was used to...

background: electromyographic (emg) signal decomposition is the process by which an emg signal is decomposed into its constituent motor unit potential trains (mupts). a major step in emg decomposition is feature extraction in which each detected motor unit potential (mup) is represented by a feature vector. as with any other pattern recognition system, feature extraction has a significant impac...

INTRODUCTION A contributing factor to the loss of muscle mass and strength during aging is the reduction in the number of functioning motor units (MU). It has been shown that lifelong physically active older rats have greater numbers of MU compared with age-matched sedentary controls, suggesting that chronic exercise may preserve MU function with advancing age. This has not previously been exam...

Pathologic progression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) results from motor neuron death, while the clinical expression also reflects the compensatory effects of collateral reinnervation consequent to lower motor neuron loss. In a cross-sectional study of ALS subjects, we made comparisons between motor unit number estimation (MUNE) values and several measures reflecting collateral reinnerv...

Motor unit number estimation (MUNE) is an important electrophysiological technique for quantitative measurement of motor neuron loss. Although commonly used, there is no consensus concerning the optimal procedure for statistical MUNE, particularly regarding several operator-dependent variables. To assess the variables, we analyzed 500 sequential, submaximal compound muscle action potential (CMA...