Characterization of electromyography in healthy female dogs

Abstract

The development in functional assessment test of nervous system, muscle, and urinary system is important as it provide veterinarian better diagnosis and prognosis especially in spinal cord injuries animals. The proposes of this study are to investigate the normal range of tibial and sciatic motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCS) recorded from the location of plantar interosseous muscle, normal range of urodynamics, characteristic of external anal sphincter (EAS) electromyography (EMG) during micturition, and normal range of electrophysiological bulbocavernosus reflex (EBCR) in the healthy female dog. A total of 11 spayed female mongrel dogs were recruited to participate in the study with the permission of the owners. Sedative agent and anesthetic drugs were administrated to provide light anesthesia. Urodynamic test (UDT), nerve conduction velocity, and myoelectrical activity were recorded by Dantec® Keypoint® G4 EMG/NCS/EP Workstation with KEYPOINT.NET 2.40 software. Twenty-five out of thirty-four data of EAS EMG showed a similar pattern, MNCS of tibial and sciatic nerve were recorded at plantar interosseous muscle using surface electrode recording and transdermal contact electrode for electrical stimulation. Conduction velocity (CV) of tibial-sciatic nerve were 34.906 to 101.750 m/s, the EBCR onset latency were between 13.85 to 27.44 ms, urodynamics resulted in a wide range of normative data with high variable. In summary, this study exhibits the method of CV test, normal range of tibial and sciatic MNCS, characteristic of EAS EMG during micturition, and normal range of EBCR which are beneficial as a baseline to help in distinguish between normal and abnormal dogs. In the future, additional studies should be performed in dogs with neurological abnormalities in various locations to be used in clinical practice.