Abstract

The prevalence of fecal incontinence (FI) increases with age and affects more than 15% of the elderly population. Sarcopenia, skeletal muscle structural, and functional decline with aging, is known to be caused by neuromuscular dysfunction. However, age-related alterations of the neuromuscular function of the external anal sphincter (EAS) have not been studied. This study aims to quantitatively characterize the effect of aging on the EAS by assessing the firing patterns and size of motor unit action potential (MUAP) using high-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG) recording and analysis techniques.Thirteen young (31.0?±?3.6 years) and 14 elderly (64.3?±?6.2 years) healthy women were recruited for this study. EMG activity of the EAS during maximal voluntary contraction was recorded by a 64-Channel, HD-sEMG intra-rectal probe. HD-sEMG signals were decomposed into MUAP spike trains to extract the firing rate and amplitudes thereof.HD-sEMG decomposition was successfully performed. For the young and elderly groups, mean motor unit (MU) firing rates of 11.4?±?2.1 pulses per second (PPS) and 9.6?±?2.3 PPS, and mean MUAP amplitudes of 45.2?±?14.3?µV and 61.9?±?21.2?µV were respectively obtained. Both the MU firing rate and MUAP amplitude were significantly different between two groups (P?

View details for DOI 10.1002/nau.24108

View details for PubMedID 31321803