The electromyography (EMG) is a medical technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. The electrical potential generated by muscle cells are detected using an electromyograph, when these cells are electrically or neurologically activated. The EMG results can reveal nerve dysfunction, muscle dysfunction or problems with nerve-to-muscle signal transmission.
In human kinesiological electromyography, electrical signals from surface electrodes or wire electrodes are recorded in order to study the function of muscles or the relationship between EMG and force as in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
To be able to compare EMG activity in the same muscle on different days or in different individuals or to compare EMG activity between muscles, the EMG must be normalised. By normalising to a reference EMG value collected using the same electrode configuration, factors that affect the EMG signals during the task and the reference contraction are the same. Subsequently, the integrated EMG (iEMG) is calculated. The iEMG is defined as the area under the curve (AUC) of the rectified EMG signal and the Maximum iEMG (in each timeslice) is easier to interpret visually and approximates the envelope of the iEMG signal.
This application aims to facilitate the diagnosis of ALS patients by analysis the data collected from devices that collect electrical activity of different muscles.
A live demo is available here
Copyright 2015 Pedro Cardoso. Code released under the Apache 2.0 license.