Motor Unit Number Reductions in Paretic Muscles of Stroke Survivors

The objective of this study is to assess whether there is evidence of spinal motoneuron loss in paretic muscles of stroke survivors, using an index measurement called motor unit number index (MUNIX). MUNIX, a recently developed novel neurophysiological technique, provides an index proportional to th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on information technology in biomedicine 2011-07, Vol.15 (4), p.505-512
Main Authors: Xiaoyan Li, Ying-Chih Wang, Suresh, N. L., Rymer, W., Ping Zhou
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Cohort Studies
Electrodes
Electromyography
Electromyography - methods
EMG
Female
Force
Hand - innervation
Hand - physiopathology
Humans
index
Indexes
Loss measurement
M-wave
Male
Middle Aged
Motor Neurons - pathology
Motor Neurons - physiology
motor unit
Muscle, Smooth - innervation
Muscle, Smooth - pathology
Muscle, Smooth - physiopathology
Muscles
Paresis - pathology
Paresis - physiopathology
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
stroke
Stroke - pathology
Stroke - physiopathology
Surface waves
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Summary:The objective of this study is to assess whether there is evidence of spinal motoneuron loss in paretic muscles of stroke survivors, using an index measurement called motor unit number index (MUNIX). MUNIX, a recently developed novel neurophysiological technique, provides an index proportional to the number of motor units in a muscle, but not necessarily an accurate absolute count. The MUNIX technique was applied to the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle bilaterally in nine stroke subjects. The area and power of the maximum M-wave and the interference pattern electromyogram (EMG) at different contraction levels were used to calculate the MUNIX. A motor unit size index (MUSizelndex) was also calculated using maximum M-wave recording and the MUNIX values. We observed a significant decrease in both maximum M-wave amplitude and MUNIX values in the paretic FDI muscles, as compared with the contralateral muscles. Across all subjects, the maximum M-wave amplitude was 6.4 ± 2.3 mV for the paretic muscles and 9.7 ± 2.0 mV for the contralateral muscles (p
ISSN:1089-7771
1558-0032
DOI:10.1109/TITB.2011.2140379