Development and Clinical application of the Clustering Index method, a new quantitative analysis of surface EMG

针刺肌电图被广泛用作神经肌肉疾病的诊断措施，尽管明显的疼痛是其明确的缺点。我们开发了一种表面肌电信号（SEMG）的定量分析，聚类指数（CI）方法，该方法可以通过无创单通道肌电信号记录区分神经源性和肌病性变化。在这项研究中，我们改进了CI方法的参数，可以达到最佳的诊断率。此外，我们检查了27名患有神经肌肉疾病的儿童，发现CI方法即使对此类儿科患者也具有中等的诊断能力。我们也经历了一位长期被诊断为肌肉萎缩症的患者，尽管斜方肌的肌电图显示神经源性改变，从而通过基因分析证实了脊髓性肌肉萎缩。肌电图是一种很有前途的无创神经肌肉疾病评估方法。

Needle EMG is widely used as a diagnostic measure of neuromuscular disorders, although significant pain is its definite drawback. We developed a quantitative analysis of the surface EMG (SEMG), Clustering Index (CI) method, which can differentiate between neurogenic and myopathic changes by a non-invasive single-channel SEMG recording. In this study, we refined parameters of the CI method that can achieve best diagnostic yield. Furthermore, we examined 27 children having neuromuscular disorders and found that CI method had moderate diagnostic power even for such pediatric patients. We also experienced a patient who had been long diagnosed as muscular dystrophy, although SEMG of the trapezius muscle revealed a neurogenic change, which lead to documentation of the spinal muscular atrophy by gene analysis. SEMG using CI method is a promising non-invasive measure to evaluate neuromuscular disorders.