Electrical impedance myography (EIM) is a novel, noninvasive, and painless technique for quantitatively assessing muscle health as well as disease status and progression. The preparatory work for commercial adhesive electrodes used in previous EIM measurements is tedious, as the electrodes need to be cut, repeatedly applied, and removed. Moreover, the electrode distances need to be measured many times. To overcome these problems, we developed a convenient and practical handheld EIM probe for assessing carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in the small hand muscles. To reduce the electrode–skin contact impedance (ESCI), the micropillared and microholed stainless steel electrodes (SSEs) contained in the probe were fabricated using a laser processing technique. When covered with saline, these electrodes showed lower ESCIs than a smooth SSE and Ag/AgCl electrode. The probe was shown to have excellent test–retest reproducibility in both healthy subjects and CTS patients, with intraclass correlation coefficients exceeding 0.975. The reactance and phase values of the abductor pollicis brevis (affected muscle) for CTS patients were consistently lower than those for healthy subjects, with a 50-kHz difference of 37.1% (p < 0.001) and 31.0% (p < 0.001), respectively. Further, no significant differences were detected in the case of the abductor digiti minimi (unaffected muscle). These results indicate that EIM has considerable potential for CTS assessment and hence merits further investigation.
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Similar content being viewed by others Explore related subjectsDiscover the latest articles and news from researchers in related subjects, suggested using machine learning. AbbreviationsAbductor digiti minimi
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Abductor pollicis brevis
Compound motor action potential
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Distal motor latency
Electrical impedance myography
Electrode-skin contact impedance
Intraclass correlation coefficient
Sensory nerve action potential
Sensory nerve conduction velocity
Stainless steel electrode
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This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61376072, 61334008). The authors acknowledge the support of the Department of Hand Surgery, HuaShan Hospital of Fudan University.
Author information Author notesState Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, China
Zhao Li, Qingquan Wei, Wenwen Liu & Yude Yu
Department of Hand Surgery, Huashan Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, 200040, China
Lingfen Chen & Dong Tian
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Upstate Medical University at Syracuse, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY, USA
Yu Zhu
College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
Yude Yu
Correspondence to Dong Tian or Yude Yu.
Additional informationAssociate Editor Estefanía Peña oversaw the review of this article.
Zhao Li and Lingfen Chen have contributed equally to this study and share first authorship.
About this article Cite this articleLi, Z., Chen, L., Zhu, Y. et al. Handheld Electrical Impedance Myography Probe for Assessing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Ann Biomed Eng 45, 1572–1580 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-017-1819-3
Received: 28 November 2016
Accepted: 07 March 2017
Published: 30 March 2017
Issue Date: June 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-017-1819-3
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