Monitoring Human Muscular Contractions with Accelerometer

Li Nguyen^1,5*, Hanh Nguyen², Thanh Phung³ and Joel Sercarz^4,6

¹Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, Automatic Subdermal Injection System, Inc, 15751 Brookhurst Ste 105, Westminster, California 92683, U.S.A.
²Department of Radiology,Magnolia Medical Imaging Center 1, 14571 Magnolia Ste 101, Westminster, California 92683, U.S.A.
³Department of Radiology, Magnolia Medical Imaging Center 2, 22921 Triton Way Ste 125, Laguna Hills, California 92653, U.S.A.
⁴Department of Radiology,Magnolia Medical Imaging Center 3, 1111 W Town and Country Ste 30, Orange, California 92868, U.S.A.
⁵Department of Anesthesiology, Innovative Drug Injection Technology Inc., 881 Dover Dr. Ste 350, Newport Beach, California 92663, U.S.A.
⁶Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery,University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Plaza, Suite 550, Los Angeles, California 90095, U.S.A.

Accepted May 14, 2014

This research work was carried out to monitor how nerves transmit impulses from muscular contractions using Electromyography (EMG) and its application in intramuscular injections. When it comes to intramuscular injection of products such as BOTOX®, there is no way to tell objectively whether the needle tip is actually inside the targeted muscle. However, we can provide an electrical stimulation using an EMG (Electromyography) needle (1.5 - 2.0 mA), then monitor the muscular contractions with an accelerometer (motion sensor). We have found that the muscles always responded on the first stimulation but never with subsequent stimulations. This means muscles run away from electrical stimuli, which would leave a needle tip just outside of the fascia, or right in the subdermal bloodless space. This subdermal bloodless space is the optimal spot for BOTOX® injections because BOTOX® acts on nerve endings that exist only on the fascia, not inside the muscle, which is where BOTOX® is typically injected.

Keywords: Accelerometer (motion sensor), electrical stimulation, injectable EMG (Electromyography) needle, muscular contractions, subdermal bloodless space, subdermal injection.

Full Text PDF (325KB)