Reproducibility of knee extensor and flexor contraction velocity in healthy men and women assessed using tensiomyography: A registered report

by Georg Langen, Christine Lohr, Olaf Ueberschär, Michael Behringer

Tensiomyography measures the radial displacement of a muscle during an electrically evoked twitch contraction. Different concepts to determine the rate of displacement (Vc) from the maximum twitch exist, but information on their reproducibility is scarce. Further, different inter-stimuli intervals during progressive stimulation are used, but the effect of different intervals on Vc is unclear.

The first aim of this study was to investigate the within and between-day reliability of the five most frequently used Vc concepts. The second aim was to investigate the effect of different inter-stimuli intervals on Vc.

On two consecutive days, we determined Vc of the biceps femoris long head and rectus femoris of twenty-four healthy subjects. The maximum displacement was determined twice within three minutes on day one and a third time 24 h later. Also, on day two, we applied three blocks of ten consecutive stimuli at a constant intensity of 50 mA, separated by 3 min each. Inter-stimuli intervals in randomly ordered blocks were 10 s, 20 s or 30 s, respectively.

All Vc concepts displayed good to excellent relative (ICC 0.87–0.99) and generally good absolute within- and between-day reliability for both muscles. Across Vc-concepts, absolute reliability was higher for the rectus femoris (CV% 1.3–7.95%) compared to the biceps femoris (CV% 6.06–15.30%). In both muscles, Vc was generally not affected by different inter-stimuli intervals. For most Vc concepts, repeated stimulation induced an increase regardless of the inter-stimuli interval, but this effect was mainly trivial and small at most.

The reproducibility of Vc concepts was generally good but varies between different muscles. A rest interval of 10 s seems preferable to longer intervals for less time required per measurement. Following this initial study, the effect of different inter-stimuli intervals on Vc should be further investigated.