Feasibility of Muscle Endurance Testing in Critically Ill Trauma Patients: A Pilot Study

Intensive care unit-acquired weakness (ICUAW) occurs secondary to patients treated for life-threatening conditions in the ICU being diagnosed based on the Medical Research Council sum score (MRC-SS). However, patients often complain of fatigability and poor endurance, which are not evaluated by muscle strength. In this study, we explored the feasibility of assessing muscle quality and endurance in trauma ICU patients. The modified Functional Index-2 (FI2) testing was applied to evaluate muscle endurance. The maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) was measured when evaluating the MRC-SS using surface electromyography (sEMG), and the fatigue index (FI) was also recorded at the time of endurance testing. The ultrasonic muscle echogenicity by gray-scale analysis of rectus femoris (RF) and tibialis anterior (TA) muscles was evaluated at the initial (