Description of the electromyographic variables during voluntary cough in humans — A systematic review

The objective of this article is to present the electromyographic surface or invasive variables used to analyze cough in individuals with and without spinal cord injury (SCI). A systematic literature review was conducted to find scientific evidence in databases: PuhMed, Science Direct, SciELO and PEDro. Scientific papers conducted in individuals with and without spinal cord injury to assess the electromyographic signal (EMG) during voluntary cough, the last 30 years in English, Portuguese and Spanish were included. Five articles were chosen for analysis and summarization of data. In individuals without spinal cord injury (SCI), the EMG signal is active in the expiratory muscles and accessories, while in individuals with SCI the mechanism of voluntary cough this restricted the clavicular portion of the pectoralis major muscle. The heterogeneity of EMG variables and the small number of included articles were the main biases found in this study.