Andrade, Adriano O., Bourget, Julien, Costa, Samila, Pereira, Adriano, Okereke, Michael I. ORCID: 0000-0002-2104-012X and Vieira, Marcus Fraga (2018) Ergonomic assessment of an active orthosis for the rehabilitation of flexion and extension of Wrist. In: World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2018. IFMBE Proceedings, 68/2 . Springer, Singapore, pp. 565-568. ISBN 978-9811090370 ISSN 1680-0737 (Print), 978-9811090387 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-9038-7_104)

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Abstract

Muscular stiffness and limb rigidity are two main consequences of Parkinson’s disease. These motor symptoms may be present in distinct parts of the body, influencing functional tasks executed by hands. To aid people suffering from these motor symptoms, we developed an active wrist orthosis whose purpose is to enable increase the flexion and extension range of motion of the wrist joint. We identified five relevant ergonomic variables that should be considered when using the orthosis in the clinical practice: (i) device stability, (ii) forearm position; (iii) muscular strength; (iv) amplitude of motion; and (v) mass of the device. These variables were identified based on the observation of movements while users executed the flexion and extension of the wrist with and without the device. In this research, we present a description of the developed orthosis and an evaluation of the ergonomic variables (i), (ii) and (iii). An enhanced support structure has been used with the orthosis and shown to lead to a stability improvement. Electromyographic analysis showed that the use of the orthosis does not introduce undue muscular load on the user at distinct angular positions of the forearm.

Item Type:	Conference Proceedings
Title of Proceedings:	World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2018
Additional Information:	Paper is part of funded grant by the Royal Society International Exchanges award (Ref: IE170795) on the topic: Ergonomic assessment of orthotic devices: A computational approach.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Parkinson’s disease; Orthosis; Ergonomics; Electromyography
Subjects:	T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > School of Engineering (ENG) Faculty of Engineering & Science > Mathematical Modelling for Engineering Research Theme
Last Modified:	31 May 2019 01:38
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/20403

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