Development of an Electrical-Stimulation-Induced Mechanomyogram Probe for Muscle Contraction Characteristics Evaluation

In this study, we developed a probe to evaluate the contraction characteristics of muscles. This probe measures the mechanomyogram which is induced by the electrical stimulation. The probe consists of two electrodes for electrical muscle stimulation and an ultra-thin piezoelectric membrane for measuring mechanomyogram. The device evaluates the contraction characteristics of muscles by analyzing the speed of contraction of fast and slow twitch muscles based on the mechanomyogram response to electrical stimulation. As a demonstration, the probe system successfully evaluated how the stretch characteristics of the gastrocnemius muscle improved with the physiotherapist’s treatment.