A Novel and Clinically Feasible Instrument for Quantifying Upper Limb Muscle Tone and Motor Function via Indirect Measure Methods
Objective: Quantifying muscle tone is often based on a tester’s subjective judgment in clinical settings. There is, however, a lack of suitable tools that can be used to objectively assess muscle tone. This study thus introduces a reliable, clinically-feasible device, called the Arm Circu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2022-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9656138/ |
| _version_ | 1819097504332906496 |
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| author | Chieh-Hsiang Hsu Yu-Chen Lin Hsiu-Yun Hsu Hsiao-Feng Chieh Chien-Ju Lin Shih-Fu Ling Fong-Chin Su Li-Chieh Kuo |
| author_facet | Chieh-Hsiang Hsu Yu-Chen Lin Hsiu-Yun Hsu Hsiao-Feng Chieh Chien-Ju Lin Shih-Fu Ling Fong-Chin Su Li-Chieh Kuo |
| author_sort | Chieh-Hsiang Hsu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective: Quantifying muscle tone is often based on a tester’s subjective judgment in clinical settings. There is, however, a lack of suitable tools that can be used to objectively assess muscle tone. This study thus introduces a reliable, clinically-feasible device, called the Arm Circumference Motor Evaluation System (ACMES), for quantifying the muscle tone of upper limbs without using mechanical torque transducers. Methods: While the ACMES conducts continuously passive arm circumduction motions, the voltage and current of the driving motor is transduced into torque values via a least square approximation. A torque sensor and springs with different spring constants were used for the validity and reliability test in the first part of this study. Fifteen healthy adults and two patients who had experienced a stroke participated in the second part, which was a clinical experiment used to examine the <italic>in-vivo</italic> test-retest reliability and to explore the inspection differences between healthy and patient participants. Results: The results showed that the ACMES has high validity (R<sup>2</sup>: ~0.99) and reliability (R<sup>2</sup>: 0.96~0.99). The reliability of the ACMES used on human subjects was acceptable (R<sup>2</sup>: 0.83~0.85). The various muscle tone patterns could be found among healthy and stroke subjects via the ACMES. Conclusion: Clinically, abnormal muscle tone, which seriously affects motion performance, will be found in many diagnoses, such as stroke or cerebral palsy. However, objectively and feasibly measuring abnormal tone in modern clinical settings is still a challenging task. Thus, the ACMES was developed and tested to verify its feasibility as a measurement system for detecting the mechanical torque associated with muscle tone. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T00:16:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fce82f2b83b14492a0f4535aa0621b99 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2168-2372 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T00:16:08Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine |
| spelling | doaj.art-fce82f2b83b14492a0f4535aa0621b992022-12-21T18:45:19ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine2168-23722022-01-01101810.1109/JTEHM.2021.31367549656138A Novel and Clinically Feasible Instrument for Quantifying Upper Limb Muscle Tone and Motor Function via Indirect Measure MethodsChieh-Hsiang Hsu0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9989-7003Yu-Chen Lin1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0866-0874Hsiu-Yun Hsu2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2996-8344Hsiao-Feng Chieh3Chien-Ju Lin4Shih-Fu Ling5Fong-Chin Su6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3870-4842Li-Chieh Kuo7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7728-0096Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, TaiwanDepartment of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, TaiwanDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, TaiwanMedical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, TaiwanMedical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, TaiwanMedical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, TaiwanDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, TaiwanDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, TaiwanObjective: Quantifying muscle tone is often based on a tester’s subjective judgment in clinical settings. There is, however, a lack of suitable tools that can be used to objectively assess muscle tone. This study thus introduces a reliable, clinically-feasible device, called the Arm Circumference Motor Evaluation System (ACMES), for quantifying the muscle tone of upper limbs without using mechanical torque transducers. Methods: While the ACMES conducts continuously passive arm circumduction motions, the voltage and current of the driving motor is transduced into torque values via a least square approximation. A torque sensor and springs with different spring constants were used for the validity and reliability test in the first part of this study. Fifteen healthy adults and two patients who had experienced a stroke participated in the second part, which was a clinical experiment used to examine the <italic>in-vivo</italic> test-retest reliability and to explore the inspection differences between healthy and patient participants. Results: The results showed that the ACMES has high validity (R<sup>2</sup>: ~0.99) and reliability (R<sup>2</sup>: 0.96~0.99). The reliability of the ACMES used on human subjects was acceptable (R<sup>2</sup>: 0.83~0.85). The various muscle tone patterns could be found among healthy and stroke subjects via the ACMES. Conclusion: Clinically, abnormal muscle tone, which seriously affects motion performance, will be found in many diagnoses, such as stroke or cerebral palsy. However, objectively and feasibly measuring abnormal tone in modern clinical settings is still a challenging task. Thus, the ACMES was developed and tested to verify its feasibility as a measurement system for detecting the mechanical torque associated with muscle tone.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9656138/Muscle tonespasticityupper limbstrokeindirect measurement |
| spellingShingle | Chieh-Hsiang Hsu Yu-Chen Lin Hsiu-Yun Hsu Hsiao-Feng Chieh Chien-Ju Lin Shih-Fu Ling Fong-Chin Su Li-Chieh Kuo A Novel and Clinically Feasible Instrument for Quantifying Upper Limb Muscle Tone and Motor Function via Indirect Measure Methods IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine Muscle tone spasticity upper limb stroke indirect measurement |
| title | A Novel and Clinically Feasible Instrument for Quantifying Upper Limb Muscle Tone and Motor Function via Indirect Measure Methods |
| title_full | A Novel and Clinically Feasible Instrument for Quantifying Upper Limb Muscle Tone and Motor Function via Indirect Measure Methods |
| title_fullStr | A Novel and Clinically Feasible Instrument for Quantifying Upper Limb Muscle Tone and Motor Function via Indirect Measure Methods |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Novel and Clinically Feasible Instrument for Quantifying Upper Limb Muscle Tone and Motor Function via Indirect Measure Methods |
| title_short | A Novel and Clinically Feasible Instrument for Quantifying Upper Limb Muscle Tone and Motor Function via Indirect Measure Methods |
| title_sort | novel and clinically feasible instrument for quantifying upper limb muscle tone and motor function via indirect measure methods |
| topic | Muscle tone spasticity upper limb stroke indirect measurement |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9656138/ |
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