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Kim, Chai, Kim, Kim, and Bae: Analysis of Lower Extremity Contraction According to Gender Using Tensiomyography
Clinical Article
Sports Science

The Korean Journal of Sports Medicine 2017; 35(3): 181-189.

Published online: 7 December 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5763/kjsm.2017.35.3.181

Analysis of Lower Extremity Contraction According to Gender Using Tensiomyography

Bo-Kyeong Kim1, *, Jung-Hun Chai2, *, Chan Kim3, Chul-Hyun Kim2, Sang-Won Bae4

1Department of Sport and Leisure Studies, Korea University, Sejong, Korea.

2Department of Sports Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, Korea.

3Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Eulji University School of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.

4Global Teun Teun Hospital, Daejeon, Korea.

Correspondence: Sang-Won Bae. Global Teun Teun Hospital, 516 Gyejok-ro, Dong-gu, Daejeon 34542, Korea. Tel: +82-42-220-2300, Fax: +82-42-226-0128, yodeo@hanmail.net

Equal contributor:

*Bo-Kyeong Kim and Jung-Hun Chai contributed equally to this study as first authors.

Received 7 August 2017       Revised 27 November 2017       Accepted 27 November 2017

Copyright © 2017 The Korean Society of Sports Medicine

The Korean Society of Sports Medicine

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Tensiomyography (TMG) is used to evaluate the contraction characteristics of the thigh muscles according to gender. Our hypothesis is that male's maximal displacement (Dm) will be lower than the control because the Dm increases when the muscle becomes stiff or hypertrophied. TMG evaluated 15 males and 12 females. The biceps femoris, semitendinosus, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and rectus femoris were evaluated. The TMG parameters obtained for each muscle were Dm and contraction time (Tc). And we calculated contraction velocity (Vc) as the rate of the radial displacement occurring during the time period of Tc with respect to Tc. Dm and Vc values of biceps femoris muscles were significantly lower in males than in controls, whereas Dm and Vc values of vastus medialis muscles were significantly lower in females than males. The Tc values of males were significantly higher in right and bilateral sum than females. This is the first report on TMG assessment by gender. We found that it is the most effective in finding muscle contraction characteristics according to gender and can induce the difference between the Dm and Vc of each muscle.

Keywords: Contraction velocity, Gender, Maximal displacement, Tensiomyography

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

System components of tensiomyography (TMG) include electrical stimulator, electrodes, TMG sensor, and user interface.

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Fig. 2

(A) Tensiomyography record with parameters' definitions. (B) Tensiomyography assessment in the vastus medialis. Tc: contraction time, Dm: maximal displacement.

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Fig. 3

Tensiomyography assessment in the (A) vastus lateralis and (B) biceps femoris.

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Fig. 4

Comparison of maximal displacement between male and female. VM: vastus medialis, L: left site, R: right site, S: sum of right and left site, BF: biceps femoris. *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001.

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Fig. 5

Comparison of contraction time between male and female. VM: vastus medialis, L: left site, R: right site, S: sum of right and left site, BF: biceps femoris. **p<0.01.

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Fig. 6

Comparison of contraction velocity between male and female. VM: vastus medialis, L: left site, R: right site, S: sum of right and left site, BF: biceps femoris. **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.

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Fig. 7

Representative tensiomyography records of male and control groups. VM: vastus medialis, BF: biceps femoris.

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Table 1

Subject information

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Values are presented as mean±standard deviation.

Table 2

Maximal displacement values for the analyzed muscles in each group

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Values are presented as mean±standard deviation.

Lt: left leg, RF: rectus femoris, VM: vastus medialis, VL: vastus lateralis, BF: biceps femoris, ST: semitendinosus, Rt: right leg, Sum: summation of right and left.

*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.

Table 3

Contraction velocity values for the analyzed muscles in each group

kjsm-35-181-i003

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation.

Lt: left leg, RF: rectus femoris, VM: vastus medialis, VL: vastus lateralis, BF: biceps femoris, ST: semitendinosus, Rt: right leg, Sum: summation of right and left.

**p<0.01.

Table 4

Contraction velocity values (mm/s) for the analyzed muscles in each group

kjsm-35-181-i004

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation.

Lt: left leg, RF: rectus femoris, VM: vastus medialis, VL: vastus lateralis, BF: biceps femoris, ST: semitendinosus, Rt: right leg, Sum: summation of right and left.

**p<0.01, ***p<0.001.

Notes

Conflict of Interest No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

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