Bayesian Aggregation Versus Majority Vote in the Characterization of Non-specific Arm Pain Based on Quantitative Needle Electromyography

Overview

Journal J Neuroeng Rehabil

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Biomedical Engineering
Neurology
Rehabilitation Medicine

Date 2010 Feb 17

PMID 20156353

Citations 1

Authors

Andrew Hamilton-Wright

Linda McLean

Daniel W Stashuk

Kristina M Calder

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Methods for the calculation and application of quantitative electromyographic (EMG) statistics for the characterization of EMG data detected from forearm muscles of individuals with and without pain associated with repetitive strain injury are presented.

Methods: A classification procedure using a multi-stage application of Bayesian inference is presented that characterizes a set of motor unit potentials acquired using needle electromyography. The utility of this technique in characterizing EMG data obtained from both normal individuals and those presenting with symptoms of "non-specific arm pain" is explored and validated. The efficacy of the Bayesian technique is compared with simple voting methods.

Results: The aggregate Bayesian classifier presented is found to perform with accuracy equivalent to that of majority voting on the test data, with an overall accuracy greater than 0.85. Theoretical foundations of the technique are discussed, and are related to the observations found.

Conclusions: Aggregation of motor unit potential conditional probability distributions estimated using quantitative electromyographic analysis, may be successfully used to perform electrodiagnostic characterization of "non-specific arm pain." It is expected that these techniques will also be able to be applied to other types of electrodiagnostic data.

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