COMPUTER APPARATUS AND PROCEDURES FOR THE DIRECT EVALUATION OF SKELETAL MUSCLE EXCITATION PATTERNS FROM ELECTROMYOGRAMS

摘要

The subject of the invention is a computer device and methods for the direct evaluation of skeletal muscle excitation patterns from electromyograms measured by means of multichannel surface or needle electrodes. The electrodes are wired or wirelessly connected to a computer device or microprocessor via an analog-to-digital converter and amplifier, which performs procedures for extracting interference and APME from the captured EMG signals and evaluating skeletal muscle excitation patterns. The invention solves the problem of dependence of EMG signals on a) anatomy and geometry of skeletal muscles, b) filtering effects of subcutaneous (in the case of surface measurements) and muscle tissues, c) properties of electrodes and d) system for capturing EMG signals. The device and methods according to the invention eliminate these negative effects and directly estimate the sum of the trigger trains of the motor units in the skeletal muscles. This improves the accuracy and computational efficiency of hitherto established devices and procedures for assessing muscle activity. The device and methods according to the invention enable computationally effective normalization of the estimated muscle excitation by the excitation detected in the reference measurement of the studied muscle. This allows an objective comparison of different measurements of the skeletal muscle electrical activity. By eliminating APME, the device and methods according to the invention reduce the influence of peripheral muscle fatigue on the measured muscle excitation patterns. This allows the direct assessment of fatigue patterns at the exit of the central nervous system, ie in the electrical activity of alpha-motor neurons. Since all the presented solutions are computationally very efficient, the device and methods according to the invention enable the evaluation of muscle excitation in real time.