Fundamental characteristics of human limb electrical impedance for biodynamic analysis.

The paper describes the use of human-limb impedance for biodynamic analysis. The change of human-limb impedance during movement was measured, and was found to be related to kinematic and kinetic parameters. Strong relationships were found between the velocity of change of the forearm impedance and the angular velocity of the elbow joint (correlation coefficient r = -0.97), between the the change of forearm impedance and the velocity of a human limb (r = 0.79). A change of upper-limb impedance was caused by a change in a sectional area of muscular tissue in the measured part and a change of blood volume during movement of an upper limb. In tennis, there was a strong relationship between a change of forearm impedance and ball velocity (r = 0.87). Impedance waveforms were useful for analysis of the movement pattern and the stability of movement in tennis. This method has the following characteristics: (a) it does not have a spatial and temporal limitation for measurement; (b) the subject is scarcely restricted in movement; (c) the data processing can be handled easily and quickly; (d) impedance waveforms inherently show magnitude, form and stability of movement.