Journal of clinical monitoring and computing
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J Clin Monit Comput · Feb 1999
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialThe effect of maintaining a constant preload or a constant degree of thumb abduction in the isometric twitch force of the thumb.
To investigate the effects of maintaining a constant preload and of maintaining a constant degree of thumb abduction on the isometric twitch force during mechanomyography of the thumb, we monitored neuromuscular function in patients anaesthetized without the use of a neuromuscular blocking agent. In addition, we studied the relationship between the degree of thumb abduction, twitch force and preload. ⋯ Changes in length of the contracting muscle fibres and creep phenomena in the connective tissue of the muscles, both leading to changes in the sarcomere length of the muscle fibres, may explain the observations in this study. In general, a stabilized preload at a constant degree of abduction seems to be required in order to obtain a stable twitch force.