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Title (eng)
Are Reusable Dry Electrodes an Alternative to Gelled Electrodes for Canine Surface Electromyography?
Author
Ana M. Ribeiro
Author
I. Bras
Author
L. Caldeira
Author
J. Caldeira
Author
Christian Peham
Author
H. Placido Da Silva
Author
Joao F. Requicha
Abstract (eng)
Despite its increasing use in veterinary rehabilitation, practical constraints—such as skin preparation and single-use electrodes—limit the wider adoption of surface electromyography (sEMG). Having conventional pre-gelled Ag/AgCl electrodes as reference, we made a pioneering comparison of the performance of reusable soft polymeric dry electrodes for recording paraspinal muscle activity in dogs during treadmill walking. Twelve clinically healthy Dachshunds from both genders were evaluated under two conditions, namely: (i) dry electrodes on untrimmed hair; and (ii) pre-gelled electrodes after trichotomy. Signals were acquired from the longissimus dorsi muscle at 1 kHz, processed with standardized filtering and rectification, and analyzed in both time and frequency domains. Dry electrodes yielded higher amplitude and Root Mean Square (RMS) values, but slightly lower power spectral density metrics when compared to pre-gelled electrodes. Nevertheless, frequency-domain results were broadly comparable between configurations. Dry electrodes reduce the preparation time, avoid hair clipping, and allow reusability without major signal degradation. While pre-gelled electrodes may still offer marginally superior stability during movement, our results suggest that soft polymeric dry electrodes present a feasible, less invasive, and more sustainable alternative for canine sEMG. These findings support further validation of dry electrodes in clinical populations, particularly for neuromuscular assessment in intervertebral disk disease.
Keywords (eng)
Surface ElectromyographyDry ElectrodesCanineMuscle Activity
Type (eng)
journal article
Language
[eng]
Persistent identifier
https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:4515
DOI
10.3390/ani15202959
Is in series
Title (eng)
Animals
Volume
15
Issue
20
ISSN
2076-2615
Issued
2025
Number of pages
14
Publication
MDPI
Version type (eng)
version of record (published version)
Date issued
2025
Access rights (eng)
open access
License
CC BY 4.0 International
Rights statement (eng)
© 2025 by the authors