Ultrasound (US) research scanners have recently been used to obtain motor unit (MU) activity. To improve clinical applicability, this study investigates whether similar MU activity can be detected using clinical US scanners.
A tibialis anterior muscle was simultaneously scanned using clinical US and surface electromyography (sEMG). Tissue velocity imaging (TVI) data was estimated from B-mode images, and spatial maps and twitch profiles were estimated from the TVI using spike-triggered averaging (STA).
The MU action potentials obtained from sEMG and US-derived spatial maps were estimated to be at approximately the same location. This demonstrates that clinical US may offer an accessible alternative for MU research