Skip to main content
Article
Comparison of Spectral and Entropic Measures for Surface Electromyography Time Series: A Pilot Study
Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development
  • Paul S. Sung, Cleveland State University
  • Ulrich Zurcher, Cleveland State University
  • Miron Kaufman, Cleveland State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2007
Disciplines
Abstract

In a previous study, we reported that the mean square displacement calculated from the surface electromyography (sEMG) signal of low back muscles exhibits a plateaulike behavior for intermediate times 20 ms < t < 400 ms. This property indicates the existence of correlations in the signal for times much longer than the inverse of the median frequency (MF), which is calculated from the power spectrum 1/ = 1/(100 Hz) = 10 ms, where is the MF. This result suggests the use of methods from nonlinear analysis to characterize sEMG time series. In this study, we applied these techniques to sEMG signals and calculated the time-dependent entropy. The results showed that the entropy of physiological time series from nondisabled control subjects is higher than the entropy from subjects with low back pain (LBP). The entropy reveals properties of the sEMG signal that are not captured by the power spectrum. In turn, this suggests a possible benefit of entropy as a tool for the clinical assessment of LBP. Because the two groups of subjects were not matched by age, the physiological origin of the observed differences between groups could be attributed to either LBP, age, or both. Additional studies with larger sample sizes and age-matched subjects are needed to investigate the relationship between LBP and entropy.

Comments
This material was based on work partially supported by the College of Graduate Studies at Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, and by a Cottrell College Science Award from the Research Corporation (grant CC6768), Tucson, Arizona.
DOI
10.1682/JRRD.2006.10.0132
Citation Information
Paul S. Sung, Ulrich Zurcher and Miron Kaufman. "Comparison of Spectral and Entropic Measures for Surface Electromyography Time Series: A Pilot Study" Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development Vol. 44 Iss. 4 (2007) p. 599 - 610
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ulrich_zurcher/11/