Stroke-Related Changes in the Complexity of Muscle Activation during Obstacle Crossing Using Fuzzy Approximate Entropy Analysis
CITE: Chen Y, Hu H, Ma C, et al. Stroke-Related Changes in the Complexity of Muscle Activation during Obstacle Crossing Using Fuzzy Approximate Entropy Analysis.[J]. Frontiers in Neurology, 2018, 9.
Abstract:
This study investigated the complexity of the electromyography (EMG) of lower limb muscles when performing obstacle-crossing tasks at different heights in post-stroke subjects versus healthy controls. Five post-stroke subjects and eight healthy controls were recruited to perform different obstacle-crossing tasks at various heights (randomly set at 10%, 20%, and 30% of the leg’s length). EMG signals were recorded from bilateral biceps femoris (BF), rectus femoris (RF), medial gastrocnemius (MG), and tibialis anterior (TA) during obstacle-crossing task. The fuzzy approximate entropy (fApEn) approach was used to analyze the complexity of the EMG signals. The fApEn values were significantly smaller in the RF of the trailing limb during the swing phase in post-stroke subjects than healthy controls (p<0.05), which may be an indication of smaller number and less frequent firing rates of the motor units. However, during the swing phase, there were non-significant increases in the fApE.