Noninvasive High-resolution Pediatric Surface EMG

 描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的目的是开发无创表面肌电图（EMG）检查方法，以克服常规有创针肌电图检查脊髓性肌萎缩症（SMA）和其他儿科神经肌肉疾病的缺点。拟议的研究有两个计划目标。第一个目标是开发和测试使用柔性表面电极阵列的非侵入性表面EMG分解方法，从而为其广泛的临床应用奠定基础，特别是对于儿科人群。这包括使用计算和实验方法验证和改进所开发的方法。第二个目标是使用新开发的无创方法对SMA患者的病理变化进行表面EMG检查，主要是在运动单位水平。在拟议的项目中使用的方法在于在表面肌电图记录和信号处理方法的最新进展。我们的研究设计是基于二维高分辨率的柔性电极阵列，适用于小儿表面肌电信号记录。利用电极阵列的空间信息和多通道记录，我们将使用最合适的肌电信号处理方法，特别是盲源分离技术，从表面肌电信号中提取单个运动单元活动。对于临床应用，我们将专注于高效，稳健，自动和用户友好的实施所开发的方法。然后将对SMA患者进行高分辨率表面EMG检查，以确定SMA的关键电诊断结果是否可以从检查的肌肉表面获得。拟议的活动将大大提高儿童肌电图检查的耐受性，同时保持/提高诊断的敏感性和特异性，从而使大量可能需要肌电图检查的患有神经肌肉疾病的婴儿、儿童和青少年受益。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this proposal is to develop noninvasive surface electromyogram (EMG) examination methods to overcome disadvantages of routine invasive needle EMG for examination of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and other pediatric neuromuscular diseases. There are two planned aims for the proposed study. The first aim is to develop and test noninvasive surface EMG decomposition methods using flexible surface electrode arrays, thus laying the foundation for their broad clinical applications, particularly for pediatric population. This includes validating and refining the developed methods using both computational and experimental approaches. The second aim is to perform a surface EMG examination of the pathological changes in SMA patients, mainly at the motor unit level, using the newly developed noninvasive methods. The approach utilized in the proposed project lie in recent advances in both surface EMG recording and signal processing methods. Our research design is based on 2-dimensional high resolution flexible electrode arrays suitable for pediatric surface EMG recording. Taking advantage of the spatial information and multi-channel recording of the electrode arrays, we will use the most appropriate EMG signal processing methods, particularly blind source separation techniques, to extract single motor unit activities from surface EMG. Toward clinical application, we will focus on efficient, robust, automatic and user-friendly implementation of the developed methods. A high resolution surface EMG examination of SMA patients will then be performed, with a view to determining whether the key electrodiagnostic findings of SMA can be made from the surface of examined muscles. The proposed activities will do much to improve the tolerability of pediatric EMG examination while maintaining/enhancing diagnostic sensitivity and specificity, thus benefiting a large number of infants, children and adolescents with neuromuscular diseases who may need EMG examination.