(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 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 with the gold standard of
duration marker positions obtained by manual measurement. The
new method was also compared with 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.