A Versatile Program for the Analysis of Electromyographic Data

Abstract

Ergonomists and researchers often utilize electromyographic (EMG) recordings to produce estimates of muscular work load in occupational exposure assessment. Prolonged measurements, possible with recent technological advances in portable data acquisition and compact memory storage technologies, require efficient data reduction methods not always available in commercial software packages. The Iowa EMG Analysis Program (IEAP) was created to provide researchers the means to incorporate multiple processing techniques suited for the analysis of prolonged EMG measurements. IEAP currently includes subroutines to calculate the amplitude probability distribution function, exposure variation analysis, clustered exposure variation analysis, and gaps analysis profiles for up to four channels of root-mean-square processed EMG data. Data management functions include the creation of customized hypertext markup language (HTML) documentation and text files able to seamlessly incorporate analysis results into existing statistical software packages. IEAP is a powerful EMG analysis tool ideally suited for ergonomists and researchers involved in occupational ergonomics studies.

Upper Limb Muscle Activity among Workers in Large-Herd Industrialized Dairy Operations

“…Temporal analysis of sEMG data was accomplished through the RMS processing technique ( 21 ). A graphic user interface was created using MATLAB 7.10.0 (Mathworks, Natick, MA, USA) to process sEMG data and obtain mean RMS values.…”

“…A graphic user interface was created using MATLAB 7.10.0 (Mathworks, Natick, MA, USA) to process sEMG data and obtain mean RMS values. Amplitude probability distribution function (APDF) was determined for the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentile ( 22 ) using custom software ( 21 ) developed in LabVIEW (National Instruments, Austin, TX, USA). Percentage muscular rest (%MR) of sEMG was determined with a maximum threshold of 0.5% MVC and a minimum gap duration of 0.25 s ( 23 ).…”

“…Percentage muscular rest (%MR) of sEMG was determined with a maximum threshold of 0.5% MVC and a minimum gap duration of 0.25 s ( 23 ). The same LabVIEW custom software ( 21 ) was used to determine %MR values. Muscle activity profiles were constructed for each muscle with normalized muscle activity expressed as RMS, ADPF, and %MR.…”

Prevention strategies for musculoskeletal disorders among high-risk occupational groups

“…The procedures for erector spinae and upper trapezius normalization have been described previously (Anton et al, 2005). All EMG data were acquired and processed using custom EMG software (Fethke, Anton, Fuller, & Cook, 2004)…”

Variability in muscle activity measurements among clinical ophthalmologists

“…All EMG recordings were processed with custom software (Fethke, Anton, Fuller & Cook, 2004). Raw EMG recordings were visually scanned for transient artifacts.…”