Application of Electromyography Technology to Predict Chronic Diseases for COVID-19 Patients
Abstract
Purpose: Electromyography (EMG) is widely used to measure grip strength to evaluate neuromuscular activity, and thus it is possible to predict the health status of the heart muscle of those infected with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the extent of its relationship according to gender and age.
Materials and Methods: Fifty participants, equally divided between males and females, ages 18 to 65, were recorded for muscle force in kilogram and potential for action signal in mV (3-10 KHz) using skin surface EMG models with grip strength data acquisition. The outcomes were then compared to the volunteers' health status, familial relationships, case history, and history of COVID-19 variation infection.
Results: Based on the analysis of recorded data related to force, frequency, intervals, and amplitude, it was found that females exhibited a significant variation (p<0.05) in force and frequency over 5 minutes, in contrast to males, who showed a significant variation (p<0.05), particularly after 3 minutes when both genders showed signs of fatigue. However, certain chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and sudden deaths may have contributed to these variations. Particularly, SARS.CoV-2 variant infection showed a significant variation (p<0.05) in the EMG result for the delta variant more than the omicron for females and more impact in male smokers.
Conclusion: Findings indicated that EMG testing can predict the likelihood of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) disease and health status based on a family history of chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and CVD, which are independently connected to COVID-19 variant infections in both genders.
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7- Bing Ling, François Coudoré, Loic Decalonne, Alain Eschalier, and Nicolas Authier, "Comparative antiallodynic activity of morphine, pregabalin and lidocaine in a rat model of neuropathic pain produced by one oxaliplatin injection." Neuropharmacology, Vol. 55 (No. 5), pp. 724-28, (2008).
8- Enrique G Artero et al., "A prospective study of muscular strength and all-cause mortality in men with hypertension." Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vol. 57 (No. 18), pp. 1831-37, (2011).
9- Mee-Ri Lee, Sung Min Jung, Hwa Sung Kim, and Yong Bae Kim, "Association of muscle strength with cardiovascular risk in Korean adults: Findings from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) VI to VII (2014–2016)." Medicine, Vol. 97 (No. 47), p. e13240, (2018).
10- Thomas Yates et al., "Association of walking pace and handgrip strength with all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: a UK Biobank observational study." European heart journal, Vol. 38 (No. 43), pp. 3232-40, (2017).
11- Liangmei Chen et al., "Better pulmonary function is associated with greater handgrip strength in a healthy Chinese Han population." BMC Pulmonary Medicine, Vol. 20pp. 1-8, (2020).
12- Darryl P Leong et al., "Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study." The lancet, Vol. 386 (No. 9990), pp. 266-73, (2015).
13- Felix Angst, Susann Drerup, Stephan Werle, Daniel B Herren, Beat R Simmen, and Jörg Goldhahn, "Prediction of grip and key pinch strength in 978 healthy subjects." BMC musculoskeletal disorders, Vol. 11pp. 1-6, (2010).
14- Sandra AS van den Heuvel et al., "Simple surface EMG recording as a noninvasive screening method for the detection of acute oxaliplatin-induced neurotoxicity: a feasibility pilot study." Neuroscience letters, Vol. 699pp. 184-88, (2019).
15- Abu Bakar Yahya, Wan Mohd Bukhari Wan Daud, Chong Shin Horng, and Rubita Sudirman, "Electromyography signal on biceps muscle in time domain analysis." Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences, Vol. 7pp. 1179-88, (2014).
16- TNS Tengku Zawawi, AR Abdullah, WT Jin, R Sudirman, and NM Saad, "Electromyography signal analysis using time and frequency domain for health screening system task." International Journal of Human and Technology Interaction (IJHaTI), Vol. 2 (No. 1), pp. 35-44, (2018).
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18- Susan Dewhurst, Thomas Graven-Nielsen, Giuseppe De Vito, and Dario Farina, "Muscle temperature has a different effect on force fluctuations in young and older women." Clinical neurophysiology, Vol. 118 (No. 4), pp. 762-69, (2007).
19- H Manjuanth, D Venkatesh, Swetha Rajkumar, and RH Taklikar, "Gender difference in hand grip strength and electromyogram (EMG) changes in upper limb." RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL SCIENCES, Vol. 6 (No. 4), pp. 1889-93, (2015).
20- W West, A Hicks, L Clements, and J Dowling, "The relationship between voluntary electromyogram, endurance time and intensity of effort in isometric handgrip exercise." European journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology, Vol. 71pp. 301-05, (1995).
21- Pandora L Wander, Edward J Boyko, Donna L Leonetti, Marguerite J McNeely, Steven E Kahn, and Wilfred Y Fujimoto, "Greater hand-grip strength predicts a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes over 10 years in leaner Japanese Americans." Diabetes research and clinical practice, Vol. 92 (No. 2), pp. 261-64, (2011).
22- Anne-Lotte LF van der Kooi, Marieke B Snijder, Ron JG Peters, and Irene GM Van Valkengoed, "The association of handgrip strength and type 2 diabetes mellitus in six ethnic groups: an analysis of the HELIUS study." PLoS ONE, Vol. 10 (No. 9), p. e0137739, (2015).
23- Seok Won Park et al., "Decreased muscle strength and quality in older adults with type 2 diabetes: the health, aging, and body composition study." Diabetes, Vol. 55 (No. 6), pp. 1813-18, (2006).
24- Ji Yong Byeon et al., "Lower relative handgrip strength is significantly associated with a higher prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in adults." Metabolic syndrome and related disorders, Vol. 17 (No. 5), pp. 280-88, (2019).
25- Avan Aihie Sayer, Elaine M Dennison, Holly E Syddall, Helen J Gilbody, David IW Phillips, and Cyrus Cooper, "Type 2 diabetes, muscle strength, and impaired physical function: the tip of the iceberg?" Diabetes care, Vol. 28 (No. 10), pp. 2541-43, (2005).
26- Kenneth Walsh, "Adipokines, myokines and cardiovascular disease." Circulation Journal, Vol. 73 (No. 1), pp. 13-18, (2009).
27- 김용배 and 김화성, "Association of muscle strength with cardiovascular risk in Korean adults: Findings from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) VI to VII (2014-2016)." (2018).
28- Swapna Mandal et al., "‘Long-COVID’: a cross-sectional study of persisting symptoms, biomarker and imaging abnormalities following hospitalisation for COVID-19." Thorax, Vol. 76 (No. 4), pp. 396-98, (2021).
29- Pei-yu Wang, Yin Li, and Qin Wang, "Sarcopenia: an underlying treatment target during the COVID-19 pandemic." Nutrition, Vol. 84p. 111104, (2021).
2- Michael Y Lin, Ana Barbir, and Jack T Dennerlein, "Evaluating biomechanics of user-selected sitting and standing computer workstation." Applied ergonomics, Vol. 65pp. 382-88, (2017).
3- I Elamvazuthi et al., "Development of electromyography signal signature for forearm muscle." Procedia Computer Science, Vol. 76pp. 229-34, (2015).
4- Hongxin Cao, Shouqian Sun, and Kejun Zhang, "Modified EMG-based handgrip force prediction using extreme learning machine." Soft computing, Vol. 21pp. 491-500, (2017).
5- Rubana H Chowdhury, Mamun BI Reaz, Mohd Alauddin Bin Mohd Ali, Ashrif AA Bakar, Kalaivani Chellappan, and Tae G Chang, "Surface electromyography signal processing and classification techniques." Sensors, Vol. 13 (No. 9), pp. 12431-66, (2013).
6- Paul Maddison, Kerry R Mills, and John Newsom‐Davis, "Clinical electrophysiological characterization of the acquired neuromyotonia phenotype of autoimmune peripheral nerve hyperexcitability." Muscle & Nerve: Official Journal of the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine, Vol. 33 (No. 6), pp. 801-08, (2006).
7- Bing Ling, François Coudoré, Loic Decalonne, Alain Eschalier, and Nicolas Authier, "Comparative antiallodynic activity of morphine, pregabalin and lidocaine in a rat model of neuropathic pain produced by one oxaliplatin injection." Neuropharmacology, Vol. 55 (No. 5), pp. 724-28, (2008).
8- Enrique G Artero et al., "A prospective study of muscular strength and all-cause mortality in men with hypertension." Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vol. 57 (No. 18), pp. 1831-37, (2011).
9- Mee-Ri Lee, Sung Min Jung, Hwa Sung Kim, and Yong Bae Kim, "Association of muscle strength with cardiovascular risk in Korean adults: Findings from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) VI to VII (2014–2016)." Medicine, Vol. 97 (No. 47), p. e13240, (2018).
10- Thomas Yates et al., "Association of walking pace and handgrip strength with all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: a UK Biobank observational study." European heart journal, Vol. 38 (No. 43), pp. 3232-40, (2017).
11- Liangmei Chen et al., "Better pulmonary function is associated with greater handgrip strength in a healthy Chinese Han population." BMC Pulmonary Medicine, Vol. 20pp. 1-8, (2020).
12- Darryl P Leong et al., "Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study." The lancet, Vol. 386 (No. 9990), pp. 266-73, (2015).
13- Felix Angst, Susann Drerup, Stephan Werle, Daniel B Herren, Beat R Simmen, and Jörg Goldhahn, "Prediction of grip and key pinch strength in 978 healthy subjects." BMC musculoskeletal disorders, Vol. 11pp. 1-6, (2010).
14- Sandra AS van den Heuvel et al., "Simple surface EMG recording as a noninvasive screening method for the detection of acute oxaliplatin-induced neurotoxicity: a feasibility pilot study." Neuroscience letters, Vol. 699pp. 184-88, (2019).
15- Abu Bakar Yahya, Wan Mohd Bukhari Wan Daud, Chong Shin Horng, and Rubita Sudirman, "Electromyography signal on biceps muscle in time domain analysis." Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences, Vol. 7pp. 1179-88, (2014).
16- TNS Tengku Zawawi, AR Abdullah, WT Jin, R Sudirman, and NM Saad, "Electromyography signal analysis using time and frequency domain for health screening system task." International Journal of Human and Technology Interaction (IJHaTI), Vol. 2 (No. 1), pp. 35-44, (2018).
17- Sandra K Hunter, "Sex differences in fatigability of dynamic contractions." Experimental physiology, Vol. 101 (No. 2), pp. 250-55, (2016).
18- Susan Dewhurst, Thomas Graven-Nielsen, Giuseppe De Vito, and Dario Farina, "Muscle temperature has a different effect on force fluctuations in young and older women." Clinical neurophysiology, Vol. 118 (No. 4), pp. 762-69, (2007).
19- H Manjuanth, D Venkatesh, Swetha Rajkumar, and RH Taklikar, "Gender difference in hand grip strength and electromyogram (EMG) changes in upper limb." RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL SCIENCES, Vol. 6 (No. 4), pp. 1889-93, (2015).
20- W West, A Hicks, L Clements, and J Dowling, "The relationship between voluntary electromyogram, endurance time and intensity of effort in isometric handgrip exercise." European journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology, Vol. 71pp. 301-05, (1995).
21- Pandora L Wander, Edward J Boyko, Donna L Leonetti, Marguerite J McNeely, Steven E Kahn, and Wilfred Y Fujimoto, "Greater hand-grip strength predicts a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes over 10 years in leaner Japanese Americans." Diabetes research and clinical practice, Vol. 92 (No. 2), pp. 261-64, (2011).
22- Anne-Lotte LF van der Kooi, Marieke B Snijder, Ron JG Peters, and Irene GM Van Valkengoed, "The association of handgrip strength and type 2 diabetes mellitus in six ethnic groups: an analysis of the HELIUS study." PLoS ONE, Vol. 10 (No. 9), p. e0137739, (2015).
23- Seok Won Park et al., "Decreased muscle strength and quality in older adults with type 2 diabetes: the health, aging, and body composition study." Diabetes, Vol. 55 (No. 6), pp. 1813-18, (2006).
24- Ji Yong Byeon et al., "Lower relative handgrip strength is significantly associated with a higher prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in adults." Metabolic syndrome and related disorders, Vol. 17 (No. 5), pp. 280-88, (2019).
25- Avan Aihie Sayer, Elaine M Dennison, Holly E Syddall, Helen J Gilbody, David IW Phillips, and Cyrus Cooper, "Type 2 diabetes, muscle strength, and impaired physical function: the tip of the iceberg?" Diabetes care, Vol. 28 (No. 10), pp. 2541-43, (2005).
26- Kenneth Walsh, "Adipokines, myokines and cardiovascular disease." Circulation Journal, Vol. 73 (No. 1), pp. 13-18, (2009).
27- 김용배 and 김화성, "Association of muscle strength with cardiovascular risk in Korean adults: Findings from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) VI to VII (2014-2016)." (2018).
28- Swapna Mandal et al., "‘Long-COVID’: a cross-sectional study of persisting symptoms, biomarker and imaging abnormalities following hospitalisation for COVID-19." Thorax, Vol. 76 (No. 4), pp. 396-98, (2021).
29- Pei-yu Wang, Yin Li, and Qin Wang, "Sarcopenia: an underlying treatment target during the COVID-19 pandemic." Nutrition, Vol. 84p. 111104, (2021).
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 12 No 4 (2025) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/fbt.v12i4.19820 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Chronic Diseases Electromyography COVID-19 Corona-V Variant Cardiovascular Disease | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Doulab RA, Qory EA. Application of Electromyography Technology to Predict Chronic Diseases for COVID-19 Patients. Frontiers Biomed Technol. 2025;12(4):844-851.
