Muscle Activity in COPD Patients for Non-Invasive Diagnosis

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1LITERATURE REVIEW
DIAPHRAGM, NECK, CHEST WALL MUSCLES ACTIVITY IN COPD PATIENTS FOR
NON-INVASIVE DIAGNOSIS USING EMG AND MMG SIGNAL ANALYSIS.

2LITERATURE REVIEW
Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Literature review..............................................................................................................................5
Respiratory muscle functions involving diaphragm, neck and chest wall muscles and
activation of COPD......................................................................................................................5
The muscle activity of the neck and the abdominal region in patients suffering from COPD....7
Assessment of the diaphragm muscles of COPD patients...........................................................8
The dysfunctions of the muscle fibres of the respiratory muscles including the diaphragm
muscles, neck muscles and the chest wall muscles...................................................................10
The main cause of the decrease in the functions of the muscles of the diaphragm, neck and the
chest walls..................................................................................................................................12
MMG signalling is one of the important and prominent way of measuring the functions of the
inspiratory muscles....................................................................................................................13
Literature gap.............................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
Reference.......................................................................................................................................16

3LITERATURE REVIEW
Abstract
The aim of this research work is to analyse the muscle activity of the diaphragm, neck and the
chest wall in the COPD patients for the non-invasive diagnoses using the EMF and the MMG
signal analyses. This is a literature review which has been done by analysing different articles
from the past research works that are done on this topic. Few research articles were found which
included the studies about the diaphragm muscles, neck muscles as well as the chest wall
muscles. The reasons for the dysfunction of the respiratory muscles are discussed in this
literature review. The diagnosis of COPD is the first aspect of starting the treatment procedures
and thus analysis of the respiratory muscle activity will help in further analysis of the disease and
will help in the treatment of the disease. Important information regarding diseases are included in
the literature review. Most of the information that are given are about the muscular activities of
the diaphragm and it contains less information about the neck muscle and the chest wall muscle.
The non-invasive diagnoses using the EMG and MMG signal analysis has described the
activities of the muscles clearly. Till now not much research work has been done on this topic
and it provides a large scope for doing much research work in future.

4LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
A medical procedure is known as non-invasive when no break has been made in the skin
and no contact is there with the mucosa or any break in the skin. The range of non-invasive
procedures actually vary a lot. Since many years, the physicians are involving many non-
invasive treatment methods which are based on the physical parameters of the functions of the
body for the purpose of assessing the health of the person and the diseases. The Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary disease is one of the major cause of death of large number of people
throughout the world. The main cause of this disease is smoking but sometimes the
environmental pollution also serves as major important causes of the lung diseases (El et al.
2017). The earlier stage of COPD is asthma and this disease is progressive but the exacerbation
and the severity of the disease can be controlled by following by methods like cessation of
smoking, managing the infections carefully. One of the major problems that the patients with
COPD are suffering is the intolerance of exercises. Though this disease is mainly characterised
by reduction in the capacity of the maximal respiratory flow. However in single and double lung
transplant, the exercise capacity has improved after the surgery. The patients suffering from
COPD are suffering from muscle dysfunction. If the deterioration of the exercise capability
increases with increase in exercise capability then, the muscle function will also be effected.
So, the increase in the muscle dysfunction needs to be reduced and the significant factors which
are involved in the muscle dysfunction needs to be identified. The loss of the functions of the
muscles of patients suffering from COPD have become a common phenomenon. This also leads
to the weaknesses of the neck muscles, diaphragm and the chest muscle walls (Stockley and
Stockley 2016). The muscle atrophy happens when a disbalance is created between protein
synthesis and the degradation shifts to the next protein breakdown. The intramuscular weakness

5LITERATURE REVIEW
of the patients suffering from COPD has become one of the matter s of major clinical relevance.
The research problem is diaphragm, neck and chest wall activity in COPD patients for non-
invasive diagnoses using EMG and MMG signals. The research question is whether the
respiratory muscle activity can be analysed by non-invasive measures or not and there is a huge
literature gap of this question with availing literatures. This study is really important in the
context of the diagnoses of the COPD patients. This study has much scope for research in future.
The thesis statement is the activity of the respiratory muscles can be measured by EMG and
MMG signalling. This report contains a detail literature review of the thesis statement involving
some related sub-points also. The main findings of this literature review is to know in details
about the theses statement and to know the past researches done on this. The results of the test of
EMG reveals the dysfunctions of muscles and nerves. This process involves the usage of
electrodes which records the electrical activity of the muscles. The mechanomyography is
another way for the examination of the characteristics of the muscles including the functions of
muscles, the control of the muscles, the signal processing, the physiological exercises and the
medical rehabilitation (McKenzie et al. 2009).
Literature review
Respiratory muscle functions involving diaphragm, neck and chest wall muscles and
activation of COPD
The functions of the respiratory muscles are different from all other muscles because this
muscle work throughout the life starting from the birth till the death of the person. The
diaphragm is the most important muscle also during when the person sleeps and this muscle has
the capacity to resist fatigue more than all other muscles. The functions of the respiratory