Barsotti Annalisa, Khalaf Kinda, Gan Dongming
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2020 Jul;2020:3138-3141. doi: 10.1109/EMBC44109.2020.9175315.
The design of effective rehabilitation protocols relies on the ability to accurately assess the physical condition and the rehabilitative needs of the patient. Monitoring muscle fatigue can increase the usability of rehabilitative and restorative devices as it helps avoiding premature tiring and injury of patients whose resistance is already compromised. In this study, we collected EMG and accelerometer data from one healthy subject during a 30-minute walk on treadmill to determine the variations of muscle activation, and gait acceleration patterns, which, however subtle, could be interpreted as early indicators of muscle fatigue. Results show an increasing Tibialis Anterior (TA) and decreasing Soleus (SOL) and Gastrocnemius (GASL, GASM) activation towards the end of the task as compared to the beginning, as well as increasing acceleration peaks during the middle swing phase. By following the approach outlined here we can assess the efficiency and reduction of metabolic cost achieved by an exoskeleton. Furthermore, muscle fatigue may be linked to the efficacy of gait rehabilitation, where decreased muscle fatigue across sessions possibly indicates longer retention of benefits after training and increased walking capacity. This methodology can be used to benchmark novel exoskeletons, monitor fatigue to avoid premature tiring of patients, and optimize rehabilitation therapies.
有效的康复方案设计依赖于准确评估患者身体状况和康复需求的能力。监测肌肉疲劳可以提高康复和恢复设备的可用性，因为它有助于避免对抵抗力已经受损的患者造成过早疲劳和损伤。在本研究中，我们在一名健康受试者在跑步机上进行30分钟步行期间收集了肌电图（EMG）和加速度计数据，以确定肌肉激活和步态加速模式的变化，这些变化无论多么细微，都可被解释为肌肉疲劳的早期指标。结果显示，与开始时相比，任务结束时胫骨前肌（TA）的激活增加，比目鱼肌（SOL）和腓肠肌（GASL、GASM）的激活减少，以及在中间摆动阶段加速度峰值增加。通过遵循此处概述的方法，我们可以评估外骨骼实现的效率和代谢成本的降低。此外，肌肉疲劳可能与步态康复的效果有关，各阶段肌肉疲劳的减轻可能表明训练后益处的保留时间更长以及步行能力增强。这种方法可用于对新型外骨骼进行基准测试、监测疲劳以避免患者过早疲劳，以及优化康复治疗。
