title: Comparison between muscle activation measured by electromyography and muscle thickness measured using ultrasonography for effective muscle assessment.
abstract: In this study, we aimed to compare the intrarater reliability and validity of muscle thickness measured using ultrasonography (US) and muscle activity via electromyography (EMG) during manual muscle testing (MMT) of the external oblique (EO) and lumbar multifidus (MF) muscles. The study subjects were 30 healthy individuals who underwent MMT at different grades. EMG was used to measure the muscle activity in terms of ratio to maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and root mean square (RMS) metrics. US was used to measure the raw muscle thickness, the ratio of muscle thickness at MVC, and the ratio of muscle thickness at rest. One examiner performed measurements on each subject in 3 trials. The intrarater reliabilities of the % MVC RMS and raw RMS metrics for EMG and the % MVC thickness metrics for US were excellent (ICC=0.81-0.98). There was a significant difference between all the grades measured using the % MVC thickness metric (p<0.01). Further, this % MVC thickness metric of US showed a significantly higher correlation with the EMG measurement methods than with the others (r=0.51-0.61). Our findings suggest that the % MVC thickness determined by US was the most sensitive of all methods for assessing the MMT grade.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, The Graduate School, Korea University, Jeongneung 3-dong, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 136-703, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: dreampt@korea.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Chang-Yong
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, College of Natural Science, Daejeon University, 62, Daehak-ro, Dong-gu, Daejeon 300-716, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: choidew@dju.kr.
authors.forename: Jong-Duk
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, College of Natural Science, Daejeon University, 62, Daehak-ro, Dong-gu, Daejeon 300-716, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: kimsy@dju.kr.
authors.forename: Suhn-Yeop
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, College of Health Science, Cheongju University, 298 Daeseong-ro, Sangdang-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk 360 764, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: odduck@cju.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Duck-Won
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, Hanseo University, 360, Daegok-ri, Haemi-myun, Seosan-si, Chungcheongnam-do 356-705, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: k6j4k@hanseo.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jin-Kyung
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, Daejeon Health and Sciences College, 77-3, Gayang 2-Dong, Dong-gu, Daejeon 300-711, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: jiwhan@hit.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Ji-Whan
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000009:Abdominal Muscles / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008161:Lumbosacral Region / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D015588:Observer Variation; D064170:Paraspinal Muscles / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014463:Ultrasonography; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Electromyography; Reliability; Ultrasonography; Validity