Identification of genetic variants the CCKAR gene and based on body measurement and carcass quality characteristics in Qinchuan beef cattle (Bos taurus)

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore genetic polymorphisms of the CCKAR gene and their relationship with the growth and development of Qinchuan cattle which could be used as molecular markers for the improvement of the breeding of Qinchuan cattle. RESULTS: Here, we have identified seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at loci g. 1463 C>G; g. 1532 T>A; g. 1570 G>A; g. 1594 C>A; g. 1640 T>C; g. 1677 G>C; and g. 1735 C>T in the coding region of the bovine CCKAR gene. The frequencies identified on allelic and genotypic characteristics have shown that all seven SNPs diverged from the Hardy-Weinberg-Equilibrium. The SNP2, SNP3, SNP6 and SNP7 had the lowest polymorphism information content values, and remaining SNPs were found to be moderate (0.25 < PIC < 0.50). The genotype CG in SNP1 at loci g.1463 C>G had the greatest association with WH, HW, CD and CCF, while the genotype TA at the very same loci was associated with BFT, ULA and IMF content in Qinchuan cattle. The CCKAR gene expression level in adipose tissue, small intestine, liver and skeleton muscle was found to be higher, whereas, the expression level of mRNA in organs of other digestive system including reticulum, abomasum and omasum was moderate. Some expression of CCKAR mRNA was found in the large intestine, kidney and rumen. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, our finding suggested that the CCKAR gene could be used as a potential candidate for the improvement of carcass quality and body measurements of Qinchuan cattle.

Genome-wide identification and analysis of AP2/ERF transcription factors related to camptothecin biosynthesis in Camptotheca acuminata / 中国天然药物

Camptotheca acuminata produces camptothecin (CPT), a monoterpene indole alkaloid (MIA) that is widely used in the treatment of lung, colorectal, cervical, and ovarian cancers. Its biosynthesis pathway has attracted significant attention, but the regulation of CPT biosynthesis by the APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor (AP2/ERF) transcription factors (TFs) remains unclear. In this study, a systematic analysis of the AP2/ERF TFs family in C. acuminata was performed, including phylogeny, gene structure, conserved motifs, and gene expression profiles in different tissues and organs (immature bark, cotyledons, young flower, immature fruit, mature fruit, mature leaf, roots, upper stem, and lower stem) of C. acuminata. A total of 198 AP2/ERF genes were identified and divided into five relatively conserved subfamilies, including AP2 (26 genes), DREB (61 genes), ERF (92 genes), RAV (18 genes), and Soloist (one gene). The combination of gene expression patterns in different C. acuminata tissues and organs, the phylogenetic tree, the co-expression analysis with biosynthetic genes, and the analysis of promoter sequences of key enzymes genes involved in CPT biosynthesis pathways revealed that eight AP2/ERF TFs in C. acuminata might be involved in CPT synthesis regulation, which exhibit relatively high expression levels in the upper stem or immature bark. Among these, four genes (CacAP2/ERF123, CacAP2/ERF125, CacAP2/ERF126, and CacAP2/ERF127) belong to the ERF-B2 subgroup; two genes (CacAP2/ERF149 and CacAP2/ERF152) belong to the ERF-B3 subgroup; and two more genes (CacAP2/ERF095 and CacAP2/ERF096) belong to the DREB-A6 subgroup. These results provide a foundation for future functional characterization of the AP2/ERF genes to enhance the biosynthesis of CPT compounds of C. acuminata.

A Systematic Characterization of Structural Brain Changes in Schizophrenia / 神经科学通报·英文版

A systematic characterization of the similarities and differences among different methods for detecting structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia, such as voxel-based morphometry (VBM), tensor-based morphometry (TBM), and projection-based thickness (PBT), is important for understanding the brain pathology in schizophrenia and for developing effective biomarkers for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, such studies are still lacking. Here, we performed VBM, TBM, and PBT analyses on T1-weighted brain MR images acquired from 116 patients with schizophrenia and 116 healthy controls. We found that, although all methods detected wide-spread structural changes, different methods captured different information - only 10.35% of the grey matter changes in cortex were detected by all three methods, and VBM only detected 11.36% of the white matter changes detected by TBM. Further, pattern classification between patients and controls revealed that combining different measures improved the classification accuracy (81.9%), indicating that fusion of different structural measures serves as a better neuroimaging marker for the objective diagnosis of schizophrenia.

A Systematic Characterization of Structural Brain Changes in Schizophrenia / 神经科学通报·英文版

A systematic characterization of the similarities and differences among different methods for detecting structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia, such as voxel-based morphometry (VBM), tensor-based morphometry (TBM), and projection-based thickness (PBT), is important for understanding the brain pathology in schizophrenia and for developing effective biomarkers for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, such studies are still lacking. Here, we performed VBM, TBM, and PBT analyses on T1-weighted brain MR images acquired from 116 patients with schizophrenia and 116 healthy controls. We found that, although all methods detected wide-spread structural changes, different methods captured different information - only 10.35% of the grey matter changes in cortex were detected by all three methods, and VBM only detected 11.36% of the white matter changes detected by TBM. Further, pattern classification between patients and controls revealed that combining different measures improved the classification accuracy (81.9%), indicating that fusion of different structural measures serves as a better neuroimaging marker for the objective diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Cloning,subcellular localization and expression pattern analysis of transcription factor SmGRAS3 from Salvia miltiorrhiza / 中国中药杂志

GRAS transcription factors play important roles in the regulation of plant root growth and GA signaling. In this study,SmGRAS3 gene was cloned,which open reading frame was 2 247 bp,and encoding 748 amino acids. The physicochemical properties and structure of SmGRAS3 and its encoded protein were analyzed by bioinformatics software. This gene belongs to the SCL9 subfamily of the GRAS family,and its promoter sequence mainly contains the light response,stress response,and hormone response elements. It may interact with the GA signal pathway and anti-stress related proteins. The subcellular localization showed that SmGRAS3 protein was mainly located in the nucleus. The expression pattern analysis showed that the expression of Sm GRAS3 was the highest in the root and the lowest in the stem,and both light and low temperature could induce the high expression level of SmGRAS3. This study provides a foundation for further study on the roles of SmGRAS3 gene in the root growth and stress tolerance of Salvia miltiorrhiza.

Development of Analytical Method and Validation using HPLC/PDA for Discrimination between Artemisiae Argyi Folium and Artemisiae Iwayomogii Herba

In this study, we described the new developed method to simultaneously discriminate two herbal drugs of Artemisiae Argyi Folium and Artemisiae Iwayomogii Herba using eight marker compounds (1 – 8) on an HPLC-PDA system. The developed method was applied to quantify the major components of two herbal drugs. The pattern analysis successfully discriminated and evaluated different components between Artemisiae Argyi Folium and Artemisiae Iwayomogii Herba. Results were used for classification of different species from collected samples.

Prescription pattern analysis of antibiotic use in a paediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India

Background: Antibiotic resistance is rising to alarming levels that necessitates the evaluation of prescription patterns for the rational use of antibiotics. Hence this study was conducted to evaluate antibiotic use in a government run general hospital.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted to evaluate the rationality of antimicrobial prescription in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of a government run tertiary care teaching hospital using the USAID indicators for rational use of antibiotics. Case records of 104 patients were documented and analysed.Results: The most common antimicrobials prescribed were 3rd generation Cephalosporins namely Ceftriaxone, followed by Aminoglycosides (Amikacin), Imipenams (Meropenam), Anti-Influenza Antiviral (Oseltamivir) and Oxazolidinones (Linezolid). A common trend of antibiotic overuse emerged due to paucity of resources to support decision making and choice of antibiotic. This led to patients being exposed to a high number of antibiotics with an associated increase in morbidity.Conclusions: Antibiotic resistance would remain a challenge until systems for rapid, precise and low cost detection of the causative micro-organisms and antibiotic sensitivity are developed, surveillance systems are increased and antibiotic stewardship programs are enforced.

Molecular characterisation of Staphylococcus aureus using spa typing as a diagnostic tool in Haryana, India

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the top six most common etiologic agents of nosocomial, community and livestock acquired bacterial infections. These infections although initially were described as a major problem in hospitals have now also become a serious threat in community not only in India but also worldwide. Its prevalence varies depending on the health-care setting, country or a particular region. Thus to better understand the epidemiology of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in a particular geographical location, it is important to study the variations in the population using molecular tools. Methods: This prospective study was carried out in the Department of Microbiology of Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary (SGT) Medical College. Staphylococcal protein A (spa) typing was done on 250 S. aureus isolates obtained from various clinical specimens including pus, wound swabs, urine, catheters, blood and cerebrosspinal fluid from both indoor and outdoor patients of SGT Hospital, Budhera, Gurgaon. Results: The selected region of the spa gene of all 250 isolates which includes 87 MRSA and 163 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus were amplified. The spa gene was detected in 248 out of 250 isolates (99.2%), whereas in 2 isolates (0.8%), it remained undetected and referred as non-typable isolates. The 248 S. aureus isolates were typed into 39 spa types, which clustered into six different spa clonal clusters and eight singletons. Conclusion: High diversity observed within S. aureus isolates indicated that many different strains circulate in the study region or in the hospital. The results would contribute in the understanding of epidemiology related to S. aureus spread and prevention.

Dermoscopic features and patterns of onychomycosis / 中华皮肤科杂志

Objective To analyze the dermoscopic features and patterns of onychomycosis.Methods From February to July in 2017,hospitalized patients from the Department of Endocrine Dermatology of the People's Hospital of Xuancheng City was enrolled and subjected to direct microscopic examination of fungi in nails,and the patients with positive results for fungi were diagnosed with onychomycosis.And then,dermoscopic photographs of infected nails were taken to analyze the dermoscopic characteristics and patterns of onychomycosis.Results A total of 205 patients with 634 infected nails were investigated.The dermoscopic characteristics on the nail plates included marble-like turbid areas (47.3％,300/634),pigmentation (30.9％,196/634),splinter hemorrhages (18.3％,116/634) and onycholysis (13.2％,84/634).The prevalence rates of marble-like turbid areas,pigmentation and onycholysis all significantly differed between distal and lateral subungual onychomycosis (DLSO) group and total dystrophic onychomycosis (TDO) group (X2 =42.09,31.23,18.19,respectively,all P ＜ 0.01).The dermoscopic characteristics at the free edge of the nails included nail thickening (33.1％,210/634) and subungual deposition of keratin and debris (26.5％,168/634).The TDO group showed significantly higher prevalence rates of nail thickening and subungual deposition of keratin and detritus compared with the DLSO group (x2 =44.3,18.52,respectively,both P ＜ 0.01).Periungual skin dryness and desquamation occurred more frequently in the TDO group than in the DLSO group (X2 =16.07,P ＜ 0.01).Of the 634lesional nails,141 (22.2％) showed a short spiked pattern,210 (33.1％) showed a longitudinal striated pattern,202 (31.9％) showed a linear edge pattern,and 193 (30.4％) showed a distal irregular termination pattern.Conclusion The main characteristic dermoscopic manifestations of onychomycosis are marblelike turbid areas,subungual deposition of keratin and debris,periungual skin dryness and desquamation,and characteristic dermoscopic patterns of onychomycosis are short spiked pattern,longitudinal striated pattern,linear edge pattern and distal irregular termination pattern.

Genomic survey of bZIP transcription factor genes related to tanshinone biosynthesis in

Tanshinones are a class of bioactive components in the traditional Chinese medicine , and their biosynthesis and regulation have been widely studied. Current studies show that basic leucine zipper (bZIP) proteins regulate plant secondary metabolism, growth and developmental processes. However, the bZIP transcription factors involved in tanshinone biosynthesis are unknown. Here, we conducted the first genome-wide survey of the bZIP gene family and analyzed the phylogeny, gene structure, additional conserved motifs and alternative splicing events in A total of 70 SmbZIP transcription factors were identified and categorized into 11 subgroups based on their phylogenetic relationships with those in . Moreover, seventeen genes underwent alternative splicing events. According to the transcriptomic data, the genes that were highly expressed in the Danshen root and periderm were selected. Based on the prediction of bZIP binding sites in the promoters and the co-expression analysis and co-induction patterns in response to Ag treatment quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), we concluded that and potentially participate in the regulation of tanshinone biosynthesis. These results provide a foundation for further functional characterization of the candidate genes, which have the potential to increase tanshinone production.

A Prospective Drug Utilization Study in Geriatric Hypertensive Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Mumbai.

Introduction: The geriatric population assumes great significance in terms of both preventive and curative health care services utilized. The patho-physio-psychological changes associated with ageing make their problems unique. In the geriatric population, hypertension accounts for a huge proportion of cardiovascular and all cause mortality and morbidity. We conducted a study to describe the patterns of antihypertensive drug use in the geriatric population, compare it to the current recommendations and conduct an analysis using the WHO-INRUD drug use indicators. Methods: A prospective cross sectional drug utilization study of 100 prescriptions of hypertensive patients (as per JNC 7) of either sex and ≥60 years was undertaken as per the WHO – DUS and the STROBE guidelines. Results: Statistically significant relation was found between BP control, and addictions and CIRSG score. The 100 prescriptions contained 344 drugs, out of which, 171 were antihypertensive drugs. Three percent of antihypertensive drugs were prescribed by generic names. Seventy nine percent of antihypertensive drugs were prescribed from the ‘hospital drug schedule’. Amlodipine, Hydrochlorothiazide, Losartan and Telmisartan were prescribed to 79%, 24%, 11%, 11% respectively. The combination of ARB (Angiotensin Receptor Blocker) + Diuretic was prescribed to 36% and that of ARB + CCB (Calcium Channel Blocker) was prescribed to 21%. The PDD/DDD ratios of Carvedilol, Losartan, Furosemide and Telmisartan were 0.7, 0.8,1 and1.2, respectively. Conclusion: Creating awareness regarding the role of addiction in BP control and advocating lifestyle changes is paramount in HTN management. Overall, the principles of rational prescribing were followed. The prescription pattern observed was as per current recommendations.

Error Patterns Analysis of Hearing Aid and Cochlear Implant Users as a Function of Noise

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Not all impaired listeners may have the same speech perception ability although they will have similar pure-tone threshold and configuration. For this reason, the present study analyzes error patterns in the hearing-impaired compared to normal hearing (NH) listeners as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Forty-four adults participated: 10 listeners with NH, 20 hearing aids (HA) users and 14 cochlear implants (CI) users. The Korean standardized monosyllables were presented as the stimuli in quiet and three different SNRs. Total error patterns were classified into types of substitution, omission, addition, fail, and no response, using stacked bar plots. RESULTS: Total error percent for the three groups significantly increased as the SNRs decreased. For error pattern analysis, the NH group showed substitution errors dominantly regardless of the SNRs compared to the other groups. Both the HA and CI groups had substitution errors that declined, while no response errors appeared as the SNRs increased. The CI group was characterized by lower substitution and higher fail errors than did the HA group. Substitutions of initial and final phonemes in the HA and CI groups were limited by place of articulation errors. However, the HA group had missed consonant place cues, such as formant transitions and stop consonant bursts, whereas the CI group usually had limited confusions of nasal consonants with low frequency characteristics. Interestingly, all three groups showed /k/ addition in the final phoneme, a trend that magnified as noise increased. CONCLUSIONS: The HA and CI groups had their unique error patterns even though the aided thresholds of the two groups were similar. We expect that the results of this study will focus on high error patterns in auditory training of hearing-impaired listeners, resulting in reducing those errors and improving their speech perception ability.

Cloning and expression pattern analysis of transcription factor SmbHLH93 from Salvia miltiorrhiza / 中草药

Objective: To clone and characterize a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor SmbHLH93 from Salvia miltiorrhiza, and to predict its probable function. Methods: SmbHLH93 was cloned by PCR and RT-PCR from genomic DNA and cDNA, while its 5' promoter region was cloned by BD Walking. Analysis on physico-chemical property, structure characteristic, and phylogenetic relationships of SmbHLH93 protein was carried out by bioinformatic method. Gene expression in different organs and inducing conditions was detected by qPCR. Results: Gene sequences of SmbHLH93 (954 bp) were obtained, including three introns and four exons, and the open reading frame was 657 bp, encoding 218 amino acids. Its promoter region had 1 583 bp nucleotides. The putative SmbHLH93 protein contains bHLH and ACT_UUR-ACR-like domains, without transmembrane helices, and located in the nucleus. The gene expression was highest in roots and lowest in stems. With the development of flowers, its expression decreased gradually. Light and low temperature could induce high expression of SmbHLH93, while salicylicacid (SA) inhibited its expression. Conclusion: A new member of bHLH transcription factor, SmbHLH93, is cloned from S. miltiorrhiza, and it could be involved in the development of flower and regulation of secondary metabolic pathways in S. miltiorrhiza.

Individual identification research of amnestic mild cognitive impairment based on support vector machine / 医学研究生学报

Objective In recent years , multivariate pattern analysis ( MVPA) method was proposed and considered to be a promising tool for automated identification of various neuropsychiatric populations .Support vector machine ( SVM) is one of the most widely used methods of MVPA .Using SVM classifier for MVPA of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and normal control (NC) group, the present study aims to build an individual diagnostic model with significant discriminative power and investigate the gray matter abnor-malities of aMCI patients . Methods Fifty-one aMCI patients and 68 normal controls were scanned on the 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for high-resolution T1-weighted images.Gray matter volume map was calculated for each subject and used as features for subsequent discriminative analysis .We first applied feature selection to remove redundant information and reduce feature dimension , and then trained an SVM classifier . Leave-one-out cross validation ( LOOCV) was used to estimate the performance of the classifier , and finally the most discriminative features were identified . Results The proposed classifier achieved a classification accuracy of 83.19%with a sensitivity of 76.47%and a specificity of 88.24%.In ad-dition, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.8368.Further analysis revealed that the most discrimi-native features for classification included bilateral parahippocampal gyri , bilateral hippocampi , bilateral amygdala , bilateral thalamus , right cingulate , right precuneus , left caudate , left superior temporal gyrus , left middle temporal gyrus , left insula and left orbitofrontal cortex. Conclusion The proposed classification model has achieved significant accuracy for aMCI prediction , and it also displayed the whole brain gray matter atrophy pattern in aMCI patients .It suggests that the proposed method may have important implications for early clinical diagnosis of aMCI patients .

A novel lipocalin homologue from the venom gland of Deinagkistrodon acutus similar to mammalian lipocalins

Lipocalins are involved in a variety of functions including retinol transport, cryptic coloration, olfaction, pheromone transport, prostaglandin synthesis, regulation of the immune response and cell homeostatic mediation. A full-length cDNA clone (named d-lipo), isolated from the venom gland cDNA library of Deinagkistrodon acutus, contained an insert of 664 bp including an open reading frame that encodes a lipocalin homologue of 177 amino acids. Comparison of d-lipo and other related proteins revealed an overall amino acid identity of less than 21.5 percent. Primary structures of d-lipo carried three structurally conserved regions (SCR) showing homologies to those of lipocalins. The first conserved Cys residue - the essential amino acid residue for the catalytic activity and unique to lipocalin-type prostaglandin D synthase (L-PGDS) in the lipocalin protein family - was identified in d-lipo at amino acid position 58. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that d-lipo was in-between the large L-PGDS cluster and the small von Ebner's-gland proteins (VEGP) cluster. Moreover, d-lipo gene presented a high-level expression in the venom gland and a low-level expression in the brain and its expression was significantly increased under pathological conditions, suggesting a possible relationship between d-lipo mRNA expression and the venom gland inflammatory disease. This is also the first report of a lipocalin homologous gene identified in the venom gland of a snake.(AU)

Measurements and Comparative Considerations of Velocities of Primary Bloodstain Spatters using a High Speed Camera / 대한법의학회지

Bloodstain pattern analysis is a forensic discipline that reconstruct events of a crime scene by analyzing sizes, shapes, distributions, positions of bloodstains. Bloodstain pattern can be classified into the low velocity, medium velocity, and high velocity system. Velocities in this system represent the velocity of the wounding agent (the force applied) and not to the velocity of the blood in flight. Thus there is no reference system about the velocity of the blood in flight in the existing bloodstain classification system. Applying bloodstain pattern analysis to the real crime case, we needed to have the reference system of velocities of impact spatter, cast-off spatter, and expectorate spatter. Therefore we measured the velocities of these spatters using high speed camera and we analyzed the results. In this experiments the average velocity of impact spatter that generated by swinging a hammer with all experimenter's strength at the pool of blood is about 4.7 times faster than that of swing cast-off spatter that generated by swinging a red-wat hammer with all experimenter's strength, and about 3.9 times faster than that of expectorate spatter that generated by emitting blood from the mouth with all experimenter's strength. The velocities of cast-off spatter and expectorate spatter, however, showed similar distributions. Our experiments that measure the velocities of droplets of blood spatters in flight under the specific conditions that generated at fastest speed can give some reference to the classification system of velocities of bloodstains which is not distinct up to now, as well as some real bloodshed crime cases.

Classification and Sequential Pattern Analysis for Improving Managerial Efficiency and Providing Better Medical Service in Public Healthcare Centers / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to find answers to the following questions: 1) Can we predict whether a patient will revisit a healthcare center? 2) Can we anticipate diseases of patients who revisit the center? METHODS: For the first question, we applied 5 classification algorithms (decision tree, artificial neural network, logistic regression, Bayesian networks, and Naive Bayes) and the stacking-bagging method for building classification models. To solve the second question, we performed sequential pattern analysis. RESULTS: We determined: 1) In general, the most influential variables which impact whether a patient of a public healthcare center will revisit it or not are personal burden, insurance bill, period of prescription, age, systolic pressure, name of disease, and postal code. 2) The best plain classification model is dependent on the dataset. 3) Based on average of classification accuracy, the proposed stacking-bagging method outperformed all traditional classification models and our sequential pattern analysis revealed 16 sequential patterns. CONCLUSIONS: Classification models and sequential patterns can help public healthcare centers plan and implement healthcare service programs and businesses that are more appropriate to local residents, encouraging them to revisit public health centers.

A Study of Similarities Between Bloodstain Pattern Analysis and Fire Investigation In Point View of Event Analysis / 대한법의학회지

Crime scene reconstruction is the use of scientific methods, physical evidence, deductive and inductive reasoning and their interrelationships to gain explicit knowledge of the series of events that surround the commission of a crime. Event analysis is the method of crime scene reconstruction. As disciplines of crime scene reconstruction, bloodstain pattern analysis and fire investigation have many common points. Comparing bloodstain pattern analysis with fire investigation in point view of event analysis helps us to further understand crime scene reconstruction as well as bloodstain pattern analysis and fire investigation themselves. We study event analysis and apply it to cases and we seek similarities and differences between bloodstain pattern analysis and fire investigation by analyzing the methodology of both of them. In a fire scene, the point with the greatest damage is the point where the fire burned longest, which is likely to be the origin. In bloodstained scenes this approach is reversed. The greatest bloodshed point is most likely the ending point of the incident and is likely at or near the point where the bloodshed started. Above this, there are other similarities between them. Mastering the crime scene reconstruction requires long time hard training. Thus if the fire investigation experts or arson experts among crime scene investigators join the field of bloodstain pattern analysis(or reverse), then there will be many synergy effects to both of them.

Electromyographic Interference Pattern Analysis-Various Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses and their Limitations- / The Japanese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine

Needle electromyography is used to investigate motor unit abnormalities, consisting of the anterior horn cell, the axon, the nerve end-plate, and the associated muscle fibers. The characteristics of the firing and recruitment patterns of motor units during voluntary contraction are identified as an interference pattern that is used clinically for the diagnosis of neuropathy and myopathy. Quantitative analysis of this interference pattern, using such factors as zero-crossing, spike count, number of turns (NT), the peak-to-peak amplitude, mean amplitude (MA), and automatic amplitude of the interference pattern envelope, is used to identify interference patterns resulting from specific pathologies. It is difficult, however, to improve the sensitivity and specificity of the analysis for the diagnosis of neuropathy and myopathy by separately analyzing the number or amplitude of the spikes involved in the interference pattern. Therefore, turn amplitude analysis has been developed, which combines the number and amplitude of the spikes. For the NT:MA ratio and peak ratio analysis (PRA), the turns are examined during a constant voluntary contraction. In contrast, for the cloud analysis, the distribution of NT and MA at various muscle strengths is plotted. Expert Quantitative Interference Pattern Analysis (EQUIP), which applies the expertise of an electromyographer, provides practical sensitivity and specificity for the clinical diagnosis of neuropathic and myopathic diseases. Understanding these various quantitative interference pattern analysis modalities will not only improve the ability of physiatrists to interpret electromyographic findings, but will also expand their knowledge of motor unit diseases.

Electromyographic Interference Pattern Analysis / The Japanese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine

Needle electromyography is used to investigate motor unit abnormalities, consisting of the anterior horn cell, the axon, the nerve end-plate, and the associated muscle fibers. The characteristics of the firing and recruitment patterns of motor units during voluntary contraction are identified as an interference pattern that is used clinically for the diagnosis of neuropathy and myopathy. Quantitative analysis of this interference pattern, using such factors as zero-crossing, spike count, number of turns (NT), the peak-to-peak amplitude, mean amplitude (MA), and automatic amplitude of the interference pattern envelope, is used to identify interference patterns resulting from specific pathologies. It is difficult, however, to improve the sensitivity and specificity of the analysis for the diagnosis of neuropathy and myopathy by separately analyzing the number or amplitude of the spikes involved in the interference pattern. Therefore, turn amplitude analysis has been developed, which combines the number and amplitude of the spikes. For the NT:MA ratio and peak ratio analysis (PRA), the turns are examined during a constant voluntary contraction. In contrast, for the cloud analysis, the distribution of NT and MA at various muscle strengths is plotted. Expert Quantitative Interference Pattern Analysis (EQUIP), which applies the expertise of an electromyographer, provides practical sensitivity and specificity for the clinical diagnosis of neuropathic and myopathic diseases. Understanding these various quantitative interference pattern analysis modalities will not only improve the ability of physiatrists to interpret electromyographic findings, but will also expand their knowledge of motor unit diseases.