Automatic method to detect and determine the preferential frequency of EMG signals from patients with pathological tremours

The paper presents a special purpose automatic-detection method de veloped to determine whether a tremour EMG contains a tremour and to calculate its preferential frequency if a tremour is present. This method is specially designed and applied in a project where only pathological tremours with preferential frequencies within the frequency band 2-10 Hz are recorded. The preferential frequency is calculated approximately as the mean frequency in a 3Hz broad area surrounding the main peak in the power spectrum The detection method assumes that the tremour signal contains only one single preferential frequency The advantages of the detection method are data reduction and objectivity. The level of detection of a tremour is approximately the same as can be derived from inspection of a power spectrum © 1984 IFMBE.