A preliminary study of the effect of manual chiropractic treatment on the splenius muscle inhorses when measured by surface electromyography

摘要

Implications Measuring muscle activity may be a useful and effective way of determining the effectiveness of chiropractictreatment in horses.Introduction The McTimoney chiropractic method has been practised for over 70 years but there is limited scientific datato support the physiological improvements with animals. This method uses short lever, high velocity, low amplitude thrustsusing the hands, to induce a therapeutic response in joint structures, muscle function and nerve reflexes. Much research todate has concentrated on the thoracic and lumbar and not the cervical area of the spine. A quantifiable measure of muscleactivity related to the cervical spine will provide further understanding of the equine athlete. Surface Electromyography(sEMG) is a non-invasive method of measuring muscle activity. The splenius muscle is in part a stabilising muscle of thecervical spine and therefore shows activity when the horse is at rest. Measurement of the activity in a stabilising muscleand assessment of any changes may provide evidence based support for chiropractic techniques. The aim of this study wasto determine if there is a relationship between objective measurable muscle parameters and misalignments and muscletension in the cervical spine of equines.