The present study addresses the following questions:
Can non-invasive evoked CMAP recordings be used
to follow postnatal changes in muscle development in
the pig, a new species with respect to compound muscle action potential (CMAP) measurements?,
and to what extent do CMAP signals correlate
to the actual fibre type composition of muscles at the
point where recordings are made? It was found that the CMAP signal, measured using non-invasive
surface techniques, increases during early postnatal
development in agreement with the physiological
development of muscles. It is proposed that postnatal
hypertrophy results in a CMAP signal comprised of the
sum of action potentials from fewer, yet larger and most
likely more highly coordinated fibres, with age, leading
to associated changes in CMAP parameters. Finally, in
spite of a small sample size, the correlations between
CMAP signal parameters and fibre type percentages
warrant further investigation.