Information regarding motor unit potentials (MUPs) and motor unit fi ring patterns during muscle contractions is useful for physiological investigation and clinical examinations either for the understanding of motor control or for the diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders. In order to obtain such information, composite electromyographic (EMG) signals are decomposed (i.e., resolved into their constituent motor unit potential trains [MUPTs]). The goals of automatic decomposition techniques are to create a MUPT for each motor unit that contributed significant MUPs to the original composite signal. Diagnosis can then be facilitated by decomposing a needle-detected EMG signal, extracting features of MUPTs, and finally analyzing the extracted features (i.e., quantitative electromyography). Herein, the concepts of EMG signals and EMG signal decomposition techniques are explained. The steps involved with the decomposition of an EMG signal and the methods developed for each step, along with their strengths and limitations, are discussed and compared. Finally, methods developed to evaluate decomposition algorithms and assess the validity of the obtained MUPTs are reviewed and evaluated.

Information regarding the morphology of motor unit potentials (MUPs) and motor unit firing patterns can be used to help diagnose, treat, and manage neuromuscular disorders. In a conventional electromyographic (EMG) examination, a clinician manually assesses the characteristics of needle-detected EMG signals across a number of distinct needle positions and forms an overall impression of the condition of the muscle. Such a subjective assessment is highly dependent on the skills and level of experience of the clinician, and is prone to a high error rate and operator bias. Quantitative methods have been developed to characterize MUP waveforms using statistical and probabilistic techniques that allow for greater objectivity and reproducibility in supporting the diagnostic process. In this review, quantitative EMG (QEMG) techniques ranging from simple reporting of numeric MUP values to interpreted muscle characterizations are presented and reviewed in terms of their clinical potential to improve status quo methods. QEMG techniques are also evaluated in terms of their suitability for use in a clinical decision support system based on previously established criteria. Aspects of prototype clinical decision support systems are then presented to illustrate some of the concepts of QEMG-based decision making.

The shapes and sounds of isolated motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) in an electromyographic (EMG) signal provide a significant source of information for diagnosis, treatment and management of neuromuscular disorders. These parameters can be analyzed qualitatively by an expert or quantitatively by using pattern recognition techniques. Due to the advantages of quantitative EMG method, developing robust automated MUAP classifiers have been explored and several systems have been developed for this purpose by now, but the accuracy of the existing methods is not high enough to be used in clinical environments. In this paper, a novel classification strategy based on ensemble of support vector machines (SVMs) classifiers in hybrid serial/parallel architecture is proposed to determine the class label (myopathic, neuropathic, or normal) for a given MUAP. The developed system employs both time domain and time-frequency domain features of the MUAPs extracted from an EMG signal using an EMG signal decomposition system. Different classification strategies including single classifier and multiple classifiers with several subsets of features were investigated. Experimental results using a set of real EMG signals showed robust performance of multi-classifier methods proposed here. Of the methods studied, the multi-classifier that uses multiple features sets and a combination of both trainable and nontrainable fusion techniques to aggregate base classifiers showed the best performance with average accuracy of 97% which is significantly higher than the average accuracy of single SVM-based classifier system (i.e., 88%).

Purpose: To validate the output of a machine learning-based software as an intelligible interface for predicting multiple outcomes after percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). We compared the performance of this system with Guy's stone score (GSS) and the Clinical Research Office of Endourological Society (CROES) nomogram. Patients and Methods: Data from 146 adult patients (87 males, 59%) who underwent PCNL at our institute were used. To validate the system, accuracy of the software for predicting each postoperative outcome was compared with the actual outcome. Similarly, preoperative data were analyzed with GSS and CROES nomograms to determine stone-free status as predicted by these nomograms. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was generated for each scoring system, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was calculated and used to assess the predictive performance of all three models. Results: Overall stone-free rate was 72.6% (106/146). Forty of 146 patients (27.4%) were scheduled for 42 ancillary procedures (extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy [SWL] [n = 31] or repeat PCNL [n = 11]) to manage residual renal stones. Overall, the machine learning system predicted the PCNL outcomes with an accuracy ranging between 80% and 95.1%. For predicting the stone-free status, the AUC for the software (0.915) was significantly larger than the AUC for GSS (0.615) or CROES nomograms (0.621) (p < 0.001). Conclusion: At the internal institutional level, the machine learning-based software was a promising tool for recording, processing, and predicting outcomes after PCNL. Validation of this system against an external dataset is highly recommended before its widespread application.

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Background: Scoliosis is the most common type of spinal deformity. A universal and standard method for evaluating scoliosis is Cobb angle measurement, but several studies have shown that there is intra- and inter- observer variation in measuring cobb angle manually.Objective: Develop a computer- assisted system to decrease operator-dependent errors in Cobb angle measurement.Methods: The spinal cord in the given x-ray image of the spine is highlighted using contract-stretching technique. The overall structural curvature of the spine is determined by a semi-automatic algorithm aided by the operator. Once the morphologic curve of the spine is determined, in the last step the cobb-angle is estimated by calculating the angle between two normal lines to the spinal curve at the inflection points of the curve.Results: Evaluation results of the developed algorithms using 14 radiographs of patients ( 4 - 40 years old) with cobb angle ranges from 34 - 82 degrees, revealed that the developed algorithm accurately estimated cobb angle. Statistical analysis showed that average angle values estimated using the developed method and that provided by experts are statistically equal. The correlation coefficient between the angle values estimated using the developed algorithm and those provided by the expert is 0.81.Conclusion: Compared with previous algorithms, the developed system is easy to use, less operator-dependent, accurate, and reliable. The obtained results are promising and show that the developed computer-based system could be used to quantify scoliosis by measuring Cobb angle.

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