Reduced Muscle Activity of the Upper Extremity in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injuries

Kyung-Sun Lee, Mobasshira Zaman and Jaejin Hwang
Additional contact information
Kyung-Sun Lee: Division of Energy Resources Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon-si 24341, Gangwon-do, Korea
Mobasshira Zaman: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
Jaejin Hwang: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-11

Abstract: Compromised physical ability due to musculoskeletal impairment among spinal cord injury (SCI) patients is known to negatively affect their quality of life. It is essential to comprehensively understand the muscle strength of the upper extremity among patients with SCI to enhance muscle function and capacity to engage in an active lifestyle. The objective of this study was to evaluate the muscle strength of 15 upper extremity muscles among patients with SCI and compare the relative weakness of individual muscles to the control group. Seven male patients with SCI with ASIA impairment scale D and E and 33 males in the control group participated in this study. Each participant performed maximal voluntary contraction of individual muscles, and the electromyography data were recorded. The results showed that the majority of the upper extremity muscles (12 out of 15) showed considerable weakness (24 to 53%) relative to the control group. Furthermore, the relative strength (ranking) of individual muscles among 15 upper extremity muscles was different between patients with SCI and the control group. This information would be useful to the selective strengthening of specific muscles as an intensive rehabilitation effort and prevent overuse and adverse injuries due to excessive muscle training.

Keywords: SCI patient; muscle activity; EMG; spinal cord injury; upper extremity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4708/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4708/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4708-:d:793233

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().