Venous congestion affects neuromuscular changes in pigs in terms of muscle electrical activity and muscle stiffness

PLoS One. 2023 Aug 3;18(8):e0289266. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289266. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Early detection of venous congestion (VC)-related diseases such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is important to prevent irreversible or serious pathological conditions. However, the current way of diagnosing DVT is only possible after recognizing advanced DVT symptoms such as swelling, pain, and tightness in affected extremities, which may be due to the lack of information on neuromechanical changes following VC. Thus, the goal of this study was to investigate acute neuromechanical changes in muscle electrical activity and muscle stiffness when VC was induced. The eight pigs were selected and the change of muscle stiffness from the acceleration and muscle activity in terms of integral electromyography (IEMG) was investigated in three VC stages. Consequently, we discovered a significant increase in the change in muscle stiffness and IEMG from the baseline to the VC stages (p < 0.05). Our results and approach can enable early detection of pathological conditions associated with VC, which can be a basis for further developing early diagnostic tools for detecting VC-related diseases.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Electromyography
  • Hyperemia*
  • Leg / blood supply
  • Male
  • Muscle, Skeletal* / blood supply
  • Swine

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by the KIST intramural grant (2E3232E), in part by the Korea University Ansan Hospital Grant, in part by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Grant 2019R1I1A1A01041847, in part by the Korea Medical Device Development Fund grant funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Project Number: RS-2020-KD000165-3). There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.