Low Back Muscle Electrical Activity in Pregnant Women of the Second and Third Trimesters

Abstract

Low back pain during pregnancy causes axial or parasagittal discomfort. These problems are experienced by more than two-thirds of pregnancies. Clinically the measurement of pain was carried out using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) method. Unfortunately, the method has low accuracy and is subjective. This paper proposes a method of measuring pain by using electromyography tools so that pain level measurement has a high level of accuracy and is non-invasive to patients. The study was carried out by installing electromyography electrodes on L4 and L5 muscles. The signal is recorded on a digital storage oscilloscope to find out the electrical activity. The results of the recording were evaluated for the action potential and frequency values.This study was conducted on 15 respondents with lower back muscle pain in mothers monitored for 1 minute with electromyography. The monitoring results are calculated on average frequency and action potential and then presented in the form of trends. The results of the analysis of pain level measurement were compared with the results of VAS measurements. From the results of this study indicate that the trend of the action potential and signal frequency using electromyography shows different results when respondents experience the same pain scale on VAS. The value generated in the measurement using VAS is only a pain number scale that is felt by the respondent where the value is subjective.