Electromyography and mechanomyography of elbow agonists and antagonists in Parkinson disease

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the electromyographic (EMG) and mechanomyographic (MMG) activities of agonist and antagonist muscles in Parkinson disease patients during maximal isometric elbow contraction in flexion and extension. Ten elderly females with Parkinson disease (average age 75 years) and 10 age-matched healthy females were tested. The torque and the EMG and MMG signals from biceps brachii and triceps brachii were recorded during sustained maximal voluntary isometric contraction of the elbow flexors and extensors. There were no intergroup differences in the EMG and MMG activities of agonist and antagonist muscles or in torque. This might be because the Parkinson subjects were tested during their medication "ON" phase, or perhaps maximal isometric contraction (MVC) induced greater active muscle stiffness that affected the MMG signal. Muscle Nerve 40: 240-248, 2009.

Novel insights into skeletal muscle function by mechanomyography: from the laboratory to the field

“…Marusiak et al [27,114] found no differences in MMG activity of agonist and antagonist muscles and in peak torque in patients with Parkinson's disease during the ''on'' phase of their medication. On the other side, without pharmacological support, patients with Parkinson's disease exhibited higher MMG amplitude and a lower median frequency of the MMG signal in the biceps brachii muscle.…”

“…Six investigations analysed the quadriceps muscle, four the biceps brachii muscle, two the diaphragm muscle, and one on the masticatory muscles, soleus, pronator teres, wrist extensors and flexors, and rectus abdominis muscles, respectively. Five studies focused on patients with spinal cord injuries [109][110][111][112][113], two on patients with Parkinson's disease [27,114] and with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [115,116], one study on patients with myopathy [117]. The other six studies were conducted on healthy, able-body participants [20,28,30,[118][119][120].…”

“…From this review, two main application fields emerged: (a) the use of MMG signal as an alternative to EMG in evaluating muscle functionality in different physio-pathological models (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [115,116]; spinal cord injury [109][110][111][112][113]; Parkinson's disease [27,114], and myopathy [117]); and (b) its employment as a biomarker to trigger orthosis or devices devoted to ameliorate patients self-sufficiency [30,120]. As far as the first application is concerned, MMG signal permits to discriminate differences in muscle activation between patients and controls.…”

“…The application fields of MMG are numerous and increasing: they span from the assessment of muscle function during isometric or dynamic contractions under different physiological conditions, such as fatigue [16][17][18], muscle temperature manipulation [19,20], stretching [21][22][23], ageing [24], training [25,26], to the analysis of the effects of rehabilitation programs [27,28], the development of prosthesis [29], and/or the use of the MMG as a triggering signal [30].…”

Advances and perspectives of mechanomyography

“…Marusiak et al (2009) evaluated the neuromuscular response of patients (N=10) with Parkinson's disease using MMG and EMG techniques. The sensors and electrodes were placed in agonist and antagonist muscles of the arm.…”