A computer model of the human single motor unit potential has been created for the purpose of developing methods of automated analysis in clinical electromyography. This approach was taken in order to examine the effects of pathological changes on the electromyographic potentials.
A comprehensive review of the previous methods of automatic analysis of clinical EMG signals described in the literature has been presented and discussed, together with the relevant work on the production and detection of electrical activity with intramuscular electrodes.
A methodology has been devised for the collection and preprocessing
of the electromyographic signals and an . EMG data base established
at U.B.C. An interactive graphics routine was developed to display the EMG waveform and allow the extraction of single motor unit potentials for further analysis.
A computer model has been proposed for the generation of single motor unit potentials observed during clinical EMG examinations of the normal biceps brachii muscle. This model was based on physiological findings.
In the model the single fiber activity was represented by a dipole current source and the motor unit was constructed from a uniform random array of fibers. Motor unit potentials generated from this array were examined at various points both inside and outside the array and the effects of single fiber axial dispersion, were investigated. The simulated
motor unit potentials generated by the model have been compared with existing data from multielectrode studies in biceps brachii.
The hypothesis that there is a variation in motor unit potential
shape at successive discharges was investigated and the model employed
for this purpose. It has been shown that for the normal motor
unit potential, one major contributor to the shape variance is electromyographic
jitter. The predictions from the model were compared with human experimental data. These results reveal that the variance may be a useful diagnostic indicator, although further research is warranted. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/19881 |
| Date | January 1976 |
| Creators | Boyd, David Colin |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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