Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering - Volume 26, issue s1

Authors: Chang, Ho | Chen, Chih-Hao | Huang, Tung-Sun | Tai, Chun-Yen

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This study designs and fabricates a novel integrated digital hand grip dynamometer and analyzes collected grip strength data. The dynamometer directly stores collected data in a computer, unlike those on the market that cannot directly store information. A strain gauge load cell is used as a force sensor. The dynamometer is designed to maximize ergonomics. Excitation voltage of the load cell is 5 V, and a 9 V battery supplies power to its circuit. The signal receiver is National Instruments (NI) data acquisition (DAQ) card that transmits signals to the computer. The operation system is designed using LabView. This study …assesses the correlation between variables of collected data. The correlation coefficients for height, weight and palm length were 0.793, 0.609 and 0.715, respectively, indicating that variables were moderately to strongly correlate with grip strength. Show more

Keywords: Hand grip dynamometer, load cell, norm of hand grip strength

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151352

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S611-S617, 2015

Authors: Gao, Zhenhai | Li, Chuzhao | Hu, Hongyu | Zhao, Hui | Chen, Chaoyang | Yu, Huili

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Frontal vehicle collisions can cause injury to a driver’s cervical muscles resulting from intense changes in muscle strain and muscle load. This study investigated the influence of collision forces in a sled test environment using a modified Hybrid III 50th percentile dummy equipped with simulated spring-type muscles. Cervical muscle responses including strain and load of the sternocleidomastoid (SCM), splenius capitis (SPL), and trapezius (TRP) were analyzed, and muscle injury was assessed. The SCM, SPL, and TRP suffered average peak muscle strains of 21%, 40%, and 23%, respectively, exceeding the injury threshold. The average peak muscle loads of the …SCM, SPL and TRP were 11 N, 25 N, and 25 N, respectively, lower than the ultimate failure load. The SPL endured the largest injury, while the injuries to the SCM and TRP were relatively small. This is a preliminary study to assess the cervical muscle of driver during a frontal vehicle collision. This study provides a foundation for investigating the muscle response and injury in sled test environments, which can lead to the improvement of occupant protections. Show more

Keywords: Cervical muscle, muscle strain, muscle load, frontal collision, dummy

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151353

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S619-S627, 2015

Authors: Chen, Aijie | Feng, Xiaoli | Zhang, Yanli | Liu, Ruoyu | Shao, Longquan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: To investigate the stress distribution in a maxillary canine restored with each of four different post systems at different levels of alveolar bone loss. Two-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) was performed by modeling a severely damaged canine with four different post systems: CAD/CAM zirconia, CAD/CAM glass fiber, cast titanium, and cast gold. A force of 100 N was applied to the crown, and the von Mises stresses were obtained. FEA revealed that the CAD/CAM zirconia post system produced the lowest maximum von Mises stress in the dentin layer at 115.8 MPa, while the CAD/CAM glass fiber post produced the highest …stress in the dentin at 518.2 MPa. For a severely damaged anterior tooth, a zirconia post system is the best choice while a cast gold post ranks second. The CAD/CAM glass fiber post is least recommended in terms of stress level in the dentin. Show more

Keywords: FEA, CAD/CAM, post, canine

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151354

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S629-S635, 2015

Authors: Liao, Zhenhua | Pu, Ting | Gu, Hongsheng | Liu, Weiqiang

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: To compare the biomechanical characters of three-level anterior cervical fusion and hybrid constructs by measuring coupled motion changes of the cervical spine, Eighteen adult human cadaveric cervical spines were biomechanically investigated under eccentric displacement control in lateral bending and axial rotation by measuring vertebral motion (X, Y, Z -axis).The 3DPD condition displayed similar coupled motion compared to the intact condition both in lateral bending and in axial rotation, while the 3PDP condition was similar only in lateral bending. However, the coupled motion of the cervical spine under 3P conditions markedly changed in both lateral bending and axial rotation. Considering the …coupled motion characteristics, the 3DPD hybrid construct is biomechanically advantageous in three types of reconstructions (3DPD, 3PDP, 3P). Show more

Keywords: Cervical spine, coupled motion, hybrid surgery, fusion, cervical disc replacement

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151355

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S637-S645, 2015

Authors: Zhang, Chao | Zhu, Yanhe | Fan, Jizhuang | Zhao, Jie | Yu, Hongying

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Muscular rigidity and atrophy caused by long-term underactivity usually lead to foot drop, strephenopodia, foot extorsion or some other complications for the lower limb movement disorders or lower limb surgery sufferers. The ankle-foot orthosis can help patients conduct the right ankle motion mode training, inhibit spasm and prevent ankle complications. In this paper, a quasi-passive 3 DOFs ankle-foot wearable orthosis was designed on the basis of kinematics and dynamics analysis of the ankle joint. Ankle joint trajectory and dynamic characteristics similar to those of natural gait can be obtained by the combination of passive energy storage and additional power complement. …In terms of function, the orthosis has shock absorption and low energy consumption. Given its excellent characteristics of comfortableness, lightweight, and anthropomorphic construction, the orthosis can be used in medical institutions for rehabilitation training or as a daily-walking auxiliary equipment for surgery sufferers. Show more

Keywords: Ankle-foot wearable orthosis, rehabilitation, quasi-passive, anthropomorphic design

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151356

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S647-S654, 2015

Authors: Pan, Lizheng | Song, Aiguo | Duan, Suolin | Xu, Baoguo

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Robot-assisted rehabilitation has been developed and proved effective for motion function recovery. Humanization is one of the crucial issues in the designing of robot-based rehabilitation system. However, most of the previous investigations focus on the simplex position control when comes to the control system design of robot-assisted passive training, and pay little attention to the dynamic adjustment according to the patient’s performances. This paper presents a novel method to design the passive training system using a developed assessing-and-regulating section to online assess the subject’s performances. The motion regulating mechanism is designed to dynamically adjust the training range and motion speed …according to the actual performances, which is helpful to improve the humanization of the rehabilitation training. Moreover, position-based impedance control is adopted to achieve compliant trajectory tracking movement. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method presents good performances not only in motion control but also in humanization. Show more

Keywords: Rehabilitation robot, humanized rehabilitation training, online assessment, stroke

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151357

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S655-S664, 2015

Authors: Zhang, Fuhai | Fu, Yili | Zhang, Qinchao | Wang, Shuguo

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Aiming at the hand rehabilitation of stroke patients, a wearable hand exoskeleton with circuitous joint is proposed. The circuitous joint adopts the symmetric pinion and rack mechanism (SPRM) with the parallel mechanism. The exoskeleton finger is a serial mechanism composed of three closed-chain SPRM joints in series. The kinematic equations of the open chain of the finger and the closed chains of the SPRM joints were built to analyze the kinematics of the hand rehabilitation exoskeleton. The experimental setup of the hand rehabilitation exoskeleton was built and the continuous passive motion (CPM) rehabilitation experiment and the test of human-robot interaction …force measurement were conducted. Experiment results show that the mechanical design of the hand rehabilitation robot is reasonable and that the kinematic analysis is correct, thus the exoskeleton can be used for the hand rehabilitation of stroke patients. Show more

Keywords: Stroke patient, hand exoskeleton, continuous passive motion, circuitous joint

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151358

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S665-S672, 2015

Authors: Yu, Chang Ho | Seo, Shin Bae | Kang, Seung Rok | Kim, Kyung | Kwon, Tae Kyu

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This study shows the improvement of muscle activity and muscle strength imbalance in the lower extremities through independent exercise loads in vibration platform. Twenty females of age 20 participated in this study. The subjects were divided into WBV group, with more than 10% of muscle strength imbalance between left and right the lower extremities, and control group, with less than 10% of muscle strength imbalance between left and right the lower extremities. As the prior experiment showed, different exercise postures provide different muscular activities. As a result, the highest muscular activity was found to be in the low squat posture. …Therefore, the LS posture was selected for the exercise in this experiment. Vibration intensities were applied to dominant muscle and non-dominant muscle, and the vibration frequency was fixed at 25Hz for the WBV group. The control group was asked to perform the same exercise as the WBV group, without stimulated vibration. This exercise was conducted for a total of 4 weeks. As a result, the WBV group which showed an average deviation of 16% before the experiment, tended to decrease approximately to 5%. In this study, vibration exercise using load deviation is shown to be effective in improving the muscle strength imbalance. Show more

Keywords: Whole body vibration, load deviation, muscle strength imbalance, surface EMG

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151359

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S673-S683, 2015

Authors: Xu, Hang | Merryweather, Andrew | Bloswick, Donald | Mao, Qi | Wang, Tong

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Marker placement can be a significant source of error in biomechanical studies of human movement. The toe marker placement error is amplified by footwear since the toe marker placement on the shoe only relies on an approximation of underlying anatomical landmarks. Three total knee replacement subjects were recruited and three self-speed gait trials per subject were collected. The height variation between toe and heel markers of four types of footwear was evaluated from the results of joint kinematics and muscle forces using OpenSim. The reference condition was considered as the same vertical height of toe and heel markers. The results …showed that the residual variances for joint kinematics had an approximately linear relationship with toe marker placement error for lower limb joints. Ankle dorsiflexion/plantarflexion is most sensitive to toe marker placement error. The influence of toe marker placement error is generally larger for hip flexion/extension and rotation than hip abduction/adduction and knee flexion/extension. The muscle forces responded to the residual variance of joint kinematics to various degrees based on the muscle function for specific joint kinematics. This study demonstrates the importance of evaluating marker error for joint kinematics and muscle forces when explaining relative clinical gait analysis and treatment intervention. Show more

Keywords: Toe marker placement, gait simulation, joint kinematics, muscle force

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151360

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S685-S691, 2015

Authors: Sohn, Jeehoon | Kim, Sukwon

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The present study evaluated effects of exercise training on the proprioception sensitivity, postural stability, and the likelihood of slip-induced falls. Eighteen older adults (6 in balance, 6 in weight, and 6 in control groups) participated in this study. Three groups met three times per week over the course of eight weeks. Ankle and knee proprioception sensitivities and postural stability were measured. Slip-induced events were introduced for all participants before and after training. The results indicated that, overall, strength and postural stability were improved only in the training group, although proprioception sensitivity was improved in all groups. Training for older adults …resulted in decreased likelihood of slip-induced falls. The study suggested that proprioception can be improved by simply being active, however, the results suggested that training would aid older adults in reducing the likelihood of slip-induced falls. Show more

Keywords: Training, proprioception, postural stability, slips, falls

DOI: 10.3233/BME-151361

Citation: Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 26, no. s1, pp. S693-S703, 2015