(Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2007) Rodríguez Carreño, Ignacio; Gila Useros, Luis; Malanda Trigueros, Armando; García Gurtubay, Ignacio; Mallor Giménez, Fermín; Gómez Elvira, Sagrario; Rodríguez Falces, Javier; Navallas Irujo, Javier; Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica; Estadística e Investigación Operativa; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa eta Elektronikoa; Estatistika eta Ikerketa Operatiboa
To analyze the variability in manual measurements of
motor unit action potential (MUAP) duration and to evaluate the
effectiveness of well-known algorithms for automatic measurement.
Two electromyographists carried out three independent duration
measurements of a set of 240 MUAPs. The intraexaminer and
interexaminer variabilities were analyzed by means of the Gage
Reproducibility and Repeatability method. The mean of the three
closest manually marked positions was considered the gold standard
of the duration markers positions (GSP). The results of four wellknown
automatic methods for estimating MUAP duration were
compared with the GSP. Manual measurements of duration showed
a lot of variability, with the combined intraoperator and interoperator
variability greater than 30%. The greatest difference between
manual positions was 11.2 ms. The mean differences between the
GSP and those obtained with the four automatic methods ranged
between 0.6 and 8.5 ms. Both manual and automatic measurements
of MUAP duration show a high degree of variability. More precise
methods are needed to improve the accuracy and reliability of the
estimates of this parameter.
