Non-invasive muscle biopsy: estimation of muscle fibre size from a neuromuscular interface

Abstract

Because of the biophysical relation between muscle fibre diameter and the propagation velocity of action potentials along the muscle fibres, motor unit conduction velocity (MUCV) could be a non-invasive index of muscle fibre size in humans. However, the relation between MUCV and fibre size has been only assessed indirectly in animal models and in human patients with invasive intramuscular EMG recordings, or it has been mathematically derived from computer simulations. By combining advanced non-invasive techniques to record motor unit activity in vivo, i.e., high-density surface EMG, with the gold standard technique for muscle tissue sampling, i.e., muscle biopsy, here we investigated the relation between the conduction velocity of populations of motor units identified from the biceps brachii muscle, and muscle fibre diameter. Moreover, we demonstrate the possibility to predict muscle fibre diameter (R2 = 0.66) and cross-sectional area (R2 = 0.65) from conduction velocity estimates with low systematic bias (~2% and ~4% respectively) and a relatively low margin of individual error (~8% and ~16%, respectively). The proposed neuromuscular interface opens new perspectives in the use of high-density EMG as a non-invasive tool to estimate muscle fibre size without the need of surgical biopsy sampling. The non-invasive nature of high-density surface EMG for the assessment of muscle fibre size may be useful in studies monitoring child development, aging, space and exercise physiology. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTOur study explored the relation between the conduction velocity of populations of motor units and muscle fibre size in healthy humans. Our results provide in vivo evidence that a high-density surface EMG-derived physiological parameter, i.e. motor unit conduction velocity, can be adopted to estimate muscle fibre size, without the need of surgical biopsy sampling. Here we propose a neuromuscular interface that opens new perspectives not only in the study of neuromuscular disorders, but also in other fields where the non-invasive and painless determination of muscle fibre and motor unit size becomes a priority, such as in aging, space and exercise physiology.