Noninvasive detection of fibrillation potentials in skeletal muscle

• Published in: IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering Vol. 49; no. 8; pp. 788 - 795
• Main Authors: Keller, S.P., Sandrock, A.W., Gozani, S.N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-08-2002; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Action Potentials - physiology; Additive noise; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Computer Simulation; Electrodes; Electromyography - methods; Feasibility Studies; Fourier Analysis; Frequency; Male; Medical sciences; Models, Biological; Muscle Denervation; Muscle, Skeletal - innervation; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Muscles; Muscular system; PSNR; Rats; Rodents; Sensitivity and Specificity; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Skin; Stochastic Processes; Surgery; Time domain analysis
• ISSN: 0018-9294; 1558-2531
• DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2002.800756

The presence of spontaneous muscle activity was determined by analysis of the power spectra of computer-model-generated sequences of spontaneous activity and additive noise. The modeling results identified the frequency band of 100-300 Hz as the band of peak signal-to-noise ratio for the detection of fibrillation potentials. Animal experiments were conducted in which the left sciatic nerves of three rats were transected. Measurements were taken 14 days following surgery with Ag/AgCl gel electrodes on the skin surface. Data was recorded from the gastrocnemius muscle on both the normal and denervated side for all three rats. The normal data and the denervated data yielded no discernible difference in the time-domain. Spectral analysis, however, demonstrated a clear and quantifiable difference between denervated and normal muscle signals. The average difference between the denervated and normal power spectral densities for the frequency band from 100 Hz to 300 Hz was 3.43, 1.90, and 3.02 dB for the three rats. The additional energy observed in the signals recorded from denervated muscles suggests that the single fiber spontaneous muscle activity that occurs in denervated muscle can be noninvasively detected. The potential diagnostic utility of noninvasive fibrillation potential detection is discussed and suggestions for future experiments are made.