Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30028092›Full record

ArticleJournal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle2018

Electromyostimulation to fight atrophy and to build muscle: facts and numbers.

Volker Adams

Abstract readEditorial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
29citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

29 citing papers in PubMed.

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  7. Impact of Russian current therapy targeting the anterior tibial group on balance and fall risk in post-stroke patients: a randomised controlled trial.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026
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  20. Aging after stroke: how to define post-stroke sarcopenia and what are its risk factors?European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine · 2022
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Volker AdamsDepartment of Molecular and Experimental Cardiology, TU Dresden, Heart Center Dresden, Dresden, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In recent years, electrical myostimulation (EMS) is becoming more and more popular to increase muscle function and muscle weight. Especially it is applied in healthy individual after injury to rebuild muscle mass and in severely atrophic patients who are not able or willing to perform conventional exercise training programs. Studies in experimental models as well as in human subjects confirmed that EMS can increase muscle mass by around 1% and improve muscle function by around 10-15% after 5-6 weeks of treatment. Despite a severe increase in circulating creatine kinase during the first session, EMS can be regarded as a safe therapeutic intervention. At the molecular level, EMS improves the anabolic/catabolic balance and stimulates the regenerative capacity of satellite cells. EMS intensity should be as high as individually tolerated, and a minimum of three sessions per week [large pulses (between 300-450 μs), high frequency (50-100 Hz in young and around 30 Hz in older individuals)] for at least 5-6 weeks should be performed. EMS improved functional performances more effectively than voluntary training and counteracted fast type muscle fibre atrophy, typically associated with sarcopenia. The effect of superimposing EMS on conventional exercise training to achieve more muscle mass and better function is still discussed controversially. Nevertheless, EMS should not be regarded as a replacement of exercise training per se, since the beneficial effect of exercise training is not just relying on building muscle mass but it also exerts positive effects on endothelial, myocardial, and cognitive function.

Indexed as

Electric Stimulation TherapyAnimalsClinical Studies as TopicDisease Models, AnimalHumansMuscular AtrophyTreatment Outcomeelectrical stimulationexercise trainingmolecular mechanismsMuscle atrophymuscle function

Identifiers

PMID30028092
PMCPMC6104107

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.