Noncontact ECG Monitoring by Capacitive Coupling of Textiles in a Chair.

Some patients are uncomfortable with being wired to a device to have their heart activity measured. Accordingly, this study adopts a noncontact electrocardiogram (ECG) measurement system using coupled capacitance in a conductive textile. The textiles can be placed on a chair and are able to record some of the patient's heart data. Height and distance between the conductive textile electrodes were influential when trying to obtain an optimal ECG signal. A soft and highly conductive textile was used as the electrode, and clothing was regarded as capacitance insulation. The conductive textile and body were treated as the two electrode plates. This study found that placing the two conductive textiles at the same height provided better data than different heights. The system also enabled identifying the P, Q, R, S, and T waves of the ECG signal and eliminated unnecessary noise successfully.

Comparison of the Acute Effects of Kinesio Taping and Sleeper Stretching on the Shoulder Rotation Range of Motion, Manual Muscle Strength, and Sub-Acromial Space in Pitchers with Glenohumeral Internal Rotation Deficit.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Sleeper stretching (SS) can improve the shoulder's range of motion (ROM) for pitchers with glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD). However, no evidence has proven the effect of Kinesio taping (KT) on shoulder strength and ROM. Therefore, this study compared the effects of SS and KT on shoulder rotation ROM, muscle strength, and sub-acromial distance in pitchers with GIRD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-one pitchers with GIRD were allocated into control, KT, and SS groups. Shoulder rotation ROM, muscle strength, and sub-acromial space were measured before and after treatment with SS or KT. RESULTS: The results revealed that KT and SS significantly enhanced shoulder rotation ROM in pitchers with GIRD. External rotator strength significantly increased following KT but significantly decreased after SS. KT and SS exerted no effects on the sub-acromial space. CONCLUSIONS: KT and SS improve shoulder rotation ROM in pitchers with GIRD. In addition, KT improves shoulder external rotator strength, and SS reduces it.

Prevalence of primate and interdental spaces for primary dentition in 3- to 6-year-old children in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Spaced primary dentition plays a critical role in the eruption of permanent teeth and the establishment of ideal occlusion. A lack of these spaces in deciduous dentition may result in disproportionate jaw and tooth sizes. Additionally, spaced primary dentition is significantly affected by ethnic factors. However, few of these studies have been conducted in Asia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of spaced primary dentition in Taiwan. METHODS: One hundred and forty-seven 3- to 6-year-old Taiwanese children (58 girls and 89 boys) were recruited for a cross-sectional study. Primate and interdental spaces were recorded by intraoral photos. The prevalence of spaced dentition was evaluated. The interpersonal agreement of spaced dentition between the upper and lower arches was also assessed. RESULTS: Most of the subjects had spaced primary dentition. The prevalence of primate space was 83.7% in the upper arch and 61.2% in the lower arch, whereas the prevalence of interdental space was 44.2% in the upper arch and 53.1% in the lower arch. The prevalence rates of interdental space and upper primate space were significantly higher in boys than in girls. Interdental spaces of the lower arch increased with age. CONCLUSION: Ethnic factors can affect the ratio of spaced dentition. Most of the 3- to 6-year-old Taiwanese children have spaced dentition. The boys have higher incidence of spaced dentition than the girls. Furthermore, primate space is more frequently found in the upper arch than in the lower arch, whereas interdental space is reversed.

A Virtual Reality-Cycling Training System for Lower Limb Balance Improvement.

Stroke survivors might lose their walking and balancing abilities, but many studies pointed out that cycling is an effective means for lower limb rehabilitation. However, during cycle training, the unaffected limb tends to compensate for the affected one, which resulted in suboptimal rehabilitation. To address this issue, we present a Virtual Reality-Cycling Training System (VRCTS), which senses the cycling force and speed in real-time, analyzes the acquired data to produce feedback to patients with a controllable VR car in a VR rehabilitation program, and thus specifically trains the affected side. The aim of the study was to verify the functionality of the VRCTS and to verify the results from the ten stroke patients participants and to compare the result of Asymmetry Ratio Index (ARI) between the experimental group and the control group, after their training, by using the bilateral pedal force and force plate to determine any training effect. The results showed that after the VRCTS training in bilateral pedal force it had improved by 0.22 (p = 0.046) and in force plate the stand balance has also improved by 0.29 (p = 0.031); thus both methods show the significant difference.

Characteristics of visual fatigue under the effect of 3D animation.

Visual fatigue is commonly encountered in modern life. Clinical visual fatigue characteristics caused by 2-D and 3-D animations may be different, but have not been characterized in detail. This study tried to distinguish the differential effects on visual fatigue caused by 2-D and 3-D animations. A total of 23 volunteers were subjected to accommodation and vergence assessments, followed by a 40-min video game program designed to aggravate their asthenopic symptoms. The volunteers were then assessed for accommodation and vergence parameters again and directed to watch a 5-min 3-D video program, and then assessed again for the parameters. The results support that the 3-D animations caused similar characteristics in vision fatigue parameters in some specific aspects as compared to that caused by 2-D animations. Furthermore, 3-D animations may lead to more exhaustion in both ciliary and extra-ocular muscles, and such differential effects were more evident in the high demand of near vision work. The current results indicated that an arbitrary set of indexes may be promoted in the design of 3-D display or equipments.

Hardware System for Real-Time EMG Signal Acquisition and Separation Processing during Electrical Stimulation.

The study aimed to develop a real-time electromyography (EMG) signal acquiring and processing device that can acquire signal during electrical stimulation. Since electrical stimulation output can affect EMG signal acquisition, to integrate the two elements into one system, EMG signal transmitting and processing method has to be modified. The whole system was designed in a user-friendly and flexible manner. For EMG signal processing, the system applied Altera Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) as the core to instantly process real-time hybrid EMG signal and output the isolated signal in a highly efficient way. The system used the power spectral density to evaluate the accuracy of signal processing, and the cross correlation showed that the delay of real-time processing was only 250 µs.

The influence of electro-acupuncture stimulation to female constipation patients.

This study aims to examine electro-acupuncture stimulation (EA) assisted therapy with analysis of heart rate variability to understand autonomic nervous activity variability (ANAV) and to track the changes in female patients with constipation. The average ages were 42 ± 12 years old. The participants were divided by a single-blind and randomized trial into two groups: the electro-acupuncture-point group, and the non-electro-acupuncture-point group. Both of the groups had eight treatments, once a week. For the electro-acupuncture (EA) group, needles were inserted into their Zusunli (ST36), Shangiuxu (ST37), Tiensu (ST25), Shueidao (ST28), Guanyuan (CV4) and Qihai (CV6) points. For the sham electro-acupuncture (SA) group, needles were inserted into acu-points that were not the ones mentioned for the EA group. While inserting needles, needles were inserted lightly into the participants' skin and removed quickly (mock Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation, TENTS). After an eight-week treatment period, the autonomic nervous system activities of the SA group did not show significant differences in their heart rate variability. However, the autonomic nervous system activities of the EA group had continuously increased after each session. The normalized high frequency powers (nHFP) of their autonomic nervous system activities were 26.79 in the first week, and they increased to 32.28 in the fourth week. In the eighth week, their nHFP had increased to 37.60 (p < 0.05). The normalized low frequency power (nLFP) was 30.81 in the first week. However, it decreased to 25.98 after three weeks of treatment. After the eight-week treatment period, the nLFP decreased to 24.84 (p < 0.05). After the eight-week treatment, the control group did not appear to undergo any physiological change, while the constipation had been improved for the experimental group. It was found that the activation of parasympathetic nervous system in the experimental group increased after the eight-week treatment. The effects of such a result on the enhancement of the activation of parasympathetic nervous system and the improvement of constipation should be further discussed.

Cycling exercise with functional electrical stimulation improves postural control in stroke patients.

The aim of this study is to determine whether short term functional electrical stimulation (FES)-assisted cycling training can affect the postural control of stroke patients, and whether the application of FES can enhance the effect of cycling training. 20 stroke patients were randomly assigned to the FES-cycling group (FES-CG) or the cycling group (CG). Measurements were completed before and immediately after each 20 min training sessions. The measurements included a balance test (to quantify the postural control ability), a Hoffmann's reflex/motor response ratio (H/M ratio) test and a pendulum test (to quantify the muscle tone). In the balance test, some parameters in all directions exhibited significant intervention effects between the FES-CG group and the CG group. The H/M ratios (p=.014; .005, FES-CG and CG respectively) and relaxation index (p=.005; .047, FES-CG and CG respectively) revealed significant difference between FES-CG and CG group. The change ratios of directional control in the forward direction and H/M ratio revealed significant difference (p=.022; .015) between FES-CG and CG among subjects with higher muscle tone. The stroke subjects' postural control was improved while their muscle tone was reduced after the 20 min cycling training program both with and without FES. We conclude that cycling training, with or without FES may reduce spasticity in stroke patients. The application of FES in cycling exercise was shown to be more effective in stroke patients with higher muscle tone.