M. Tech. Chiro. / The purpose of this study was to determine the effect that C5 and C6 spinal manipulative therapy had on alpha motorneuron excitability of the musculocutaneous nerve in the biceps brachii muscle. Readings were recorded using Electromyography (EMG). Eighty asymptomatic subjects participated in this study. The subjects selected had to be between 18 and 35 years of age, having experienced no cervical pain, discomfort or pathology. The subjects had to present with a C5 or C6 joint motion restriction based on motion and static palpation. Patients were selected based on their response to advertisements posted throughout the Technikon Witwatersrand. Forty of the subjects were placed in the test group and received C5 or C6 joint manipulation once off. The other forty subjects were placed in the control group. EMG readings were taken before, at the time of, and after the spinal manipulative therapy, to ascertain whether the adjustment influenced the strength of the biceps brachii contraction and the reflexive action of the muscle. Pressure algometry was used on the biceps brachii as a subjective test on each patient. A repeated measure student’s t-test was performed, including a Normality and Equal Variance Test for control and trial groups. This study showed that spinal manipulative therapy momentarily increases alpha motorneuron excitability in the biceps brachii muscle in 71.4% of the patients with C5-C6 joint motion restrictions. / Dr. C. Yelverton Dr. C. J. Hay

<p> The force-velocity and force-length relationships of skeletal muscle have been thoroughly investigated in the literature. Unfortunately many of the relationships that have been applied to models of the human anatomy have been based upon investigations that have been performed under in-vitro conditions. It was the intention of this study to investigate whether the relationships determined by in-vitro investigation and assumed to be correct could accurately and properly be applied to actual human examples. Previous investigation by Leedham and Dowling (1991) displayed that when investigating human elbow flexors and in particular the biceps brachii that the force-length relationship did not concur with in-vitro results. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between length, velocity, EMG and force of the biceps muscle. </p> <p> Eight young adult males (22-26) were fastened into an isoveloci ty device ( CYBEX) which allowed only flexion and extension of the right elbow. The forearm was then rotated eccentrically or concentrically through a range of motion from 50 to 170 degrees of extension (or vice-versa). The biceps muscle was either maximally contracted voluntarily or was excited using electrical stimulation at 40 Hz. Using the constant angle torque (CAT) method and three dimensional surfaces the force-velocity, force-length and EMG-velocity relationships were investigated. <p> <p> The main conclusions of the study were that the neural drive provided by electrical stimulation over the motor point provided CMAPS of consistent amplitude regardless of the joint angle or angular velocity. The concentric force-velocity relationship of the biceps was in agreement with most accounts in the literature however the eccentric contraction condition displayed a peak force production at 30° Is then showed a slight decline to plateau across faster eccentric velocities. Increased eccentric force production was thought to be more mechanical than neurological in nature. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Noninvasive viscoelasticity imaging, or “dynamic elastography”, methods have recently been developed to objectively quantify the local viscoelastic properties of soft tissues by measuring the local propagation velocity of mechanical shear vibrations (e.g. faster velocity indicates stiffer material). But, the existing elastography technologies require a potentially uncomfortable external mechanical stimulation (e.g. vibrations probe) to induce muscle vibrations; and sophisticated and expensive imaging equipments (such as MRI and ultrafast ultrasound elastography), involving complex signal processing, to record and analyze these muscle vibrations. The work in this dissertation lays the foundation for the development of a low cost, passive, non-invasive elastography by analyzing and processing Surface Mechanomyograms (S-MMGs) measured with one dimensional accelerometers from the biceps brachii muscle. Aim 1 of this dissertation focused on the 3-dimensional aspect of vibrations measured by accelerometers on the skin surface above the biceps brachii. While Aim 2 focused on using one-dimensional accelerometers to determine the propagation direction of the propagating S-MMG waves. Using this newly developed knowledge on S-MMG Aim 3 was accomplished, a method to analyze the propagating wave and develop a metric that can track the changes in the muscle was developed, namely, the coherence length. The coherence length was found to significantly increase with increased contraction levels for all seven of the subjects. Overall the results of this study show that the propagation features of S-MMG vibrations reflect the architecture and contraction level of the biceps brachii muscle. Hence S-MMG could potentially be used for monitoring physiological changes of skeletal muscles.

M. Tech. / OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to explore whether dry needle therapy delivered to latent myofascial trigger points of the biceps brachii muscle had an immediate effect on muscle activity and strength . DESIGN: One hundred participants with latent myofascial trigger points of the biceps brachii muscle and who were suitable for the study were drawn from the community. They were al located in to either a controlor treatment group so that each group contained fifty participants . The control and treatment group were divided in such a way to ensure that the two groups were comparable with one another un terms of age and gender. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire was completed by each participant to ensure that the two groups were also comparable with one another in terms of the total amount of physical activity performed per week. The results of this study were statistically analysed by STATKON at the University of Johannesburg.

No description available.

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate skeletal muscle blood flow and glucose uptake in m. biceps (BF) and m. quadriceps femoris (QF) 1) during recovery from high intensity cycle exercise, and 2) while wearing a compression short applying ~37 mmHg to the thigh muscles. Blood flow and glucose uptake were measured in the compressed and non-compressed leg of 6 healthy men by using positron emission tomography. At baseline blood flow in QF (P = 0.79) and BF (P = 0.90) did not differ between the compressed and the non-compressed leg. During recovery muscle blood flow was higher compared to baseline in both compressed (P&lt;0.01) and non-compressed QF (P&lt;0.001) but not in compressed (P = 0.41) and non-compressed BF (P = 0.05; effect size = 2.74). During recovery blood flow was lower in compressed QF (P&lt;0.01) but not in BF (P = 0.26) compared to the non-compressed muscles. During baseline and recovery no differences in blood flow were detected between the superficial and deep parts of QF in both, compressed (baseline P = 0.79; recovery P = 0.68) and non-compressed leg (baseline P = 0.64; recovery P = 0.06). During recovery glucose uptake was higher in QF compared to BF in both conditions (P&lt;0.01) with no difference between the compressed and non-compressed thigh. Glucose uptake was higher in the deep compared to the superficial parts of QF (compression leg P = 0.02). These results demonstrate that wearing compression shorts with ~37 mmHg of external pressure reduces blood flow both in the deep and superficial regions of muscle tissue during recovery from high intensity exercise but does not affect glucose uptake in BF and QF. © 2013 Sperlich et al. / <p>:doi 10.1371/journal.pone.0060923</p>