title: Motor unit action potential duration, II: a new automatic measurement method based on the wavelet transform.
abstract: The aim of this work is to present and evaluate a new algorithm, based on the wavelet transform, for the automatic measurement of motor unit action potential (MUAP) duration. A total of 240 MUAPs were studied. The waveform of each MUAP was wavelet-transformed, and the start and end points were estimated by regarding the maxima and minima points in a particular scale of the wavelet transform. The results of the new method were compared to the gold standard of duration marker positions obtained by manual measurement. The new method was also compared to a conventional algorithm, which we had found to be best in a previous comparative study. To evaluate the new method against manual measurements, the dispersion of automatic and manual duration markers were analyzed in a set of 19 repeatedly recorded MUAPs. The differences between the new algorithm's marker positions and the gold standard of duration marker positions were smaller than those observed with the conventional method. The dispersion of the new algorithm's marker positions was slightly less than that of the manual one. Our new method for automatic measurement of MUAP duration is more accurate than other available algorithms and more consistent than manual measurements.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Spain.
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gila
authors.forename: Armando
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malanda
authors.forename: Ignacio Garcia
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Gurtubay
authors.forename: Fermin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mallor
authors.forename: Sagrario
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Navallas
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*