Convergent Validity between Electromyographic Muscle Activity, Ultrasound Muscle Thickness and Dynamometric Force Measurement for Assessing Muscle
Loading...
Official URL
Full text at PDC
Publication date
2023
Advisors (or tutors)
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI
Citation
Abstract
Muscle fatigue is defined as a reversible decline in performance after intensive use, which
largely recovers after a resting period. Surface electromyography (EMG), ultrasound imaging (US)
and dynamometry are used to assess muscle activity, muscle morphology and isometric force capacity.
This study aimed to assess the convergent validity between these three methods for assessing
muscle fatigue during a manual prehension maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC). A
diagnostic accuracy study was conducted, enrolling 50 healthy participants for the measurement
of simultaneous changes in muscle thickness, muscle activity and isometric force using EMG, US
and a hand dynamometer, respectively, during a 15 s MVIC. An adjustment line and its variance
(R2) were calculated. Muscle activity and thickness were comparable between genders (p > 0.05).
However, men exhibited lower force holding capacity (p < 0.05). No side-to-side or dominance differences
were found for any variable. Significant correlations were found for the EMG slope with US
(r = 0.359; p < 0.01) and dynamometry (r = 0.305; p < 0.01) slopes and between dynamometry and US
slopes (r = 0.227; p < 0.05). The sample of this study was characterized by comparable muscle activity
and muscle thickness change between genders. In addition, fatigue slopes were not associated with
demography or anthropometry. Our findings showed fair convergent associations between these
methods, providing synergistic muscle fatigue information.