Investigation of muscle strength in long covid patients based on mechanomyography / Harinivas Rao Suba Rao

Harinivas Rao , Suba Rao (2024) Investigation of muscle strength in long covid patients based on mechanomyography / Harinivas Rao Suba Rao. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

Mechanomyography (MMG) is an alternate tool that can noninvasively test muscular strength. The main focus of this study is the development of MMG for assessing muscle strength in patients with long-term conditions. Long COVID is a post-COVID syndrome that affects those who have had COVID-19 symptoms for at least three to six months. The physiological consequences of age, gender, and level of physical exercise are very important in defining an individual's muscle strength, especially for post-COVID-19 individuals. Additionally, MMG has additional potential advantages because it gives a greater signal-to-noise ratio and is less sensitive to the location of the sensor on the muscle. The MMG prototype can measure muscle strength potential by obtaining an MMG signal from the surface of an identified muscle from time to time with the aid of a smartphone application, comparing post-COVID-19 with non-covid-healthy individuals. Twenty healthy and post-COVID-19 category 1 and 2 participants respectively volunteered in the study. All of them performed knee extensions and half-squats as the baseline measures, followed by a series of loaded (2kg ankle load during knee extension and 10kg body load during half-squats) in each set to induce muscle fatigue, with an MMG sensor attached externally over their quadriceps muscle. All participants who engaged in more vigorous contractile activity experienced higher muscle fatigue, portrayed by a reduction in MMG values throughout the session, with post-COVID-19 subjects reporting lower MMG values than healthy subjects (p=0.034) [post-COVID-19 MMG value:(0.80±0.18) g; healthy non-covid MMG value:(0.83±0.14) g, p=0.034]. The MMG signal from axis Y is reliable for measuring muscle strength potential, which oscillates laterally and is shown to be more sensitive than the axes X and Z. In addition, to support this research, a thigh angle was calculated, and this was portrayed by a reduction in the triaxial ADXL345 signal throughout the session, and a greater deviation in thigh angle values throughout the session, with post-COVID-19 subjects reporting greater thigh angle difference compared to healthy subjects.

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