Projektakademie Medizintechnik: Method for assessment of muscular co-contractions in osteoarthritis

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Therapeutic devices that are able to effectively reduce the amount of muscular co-contractions have significant potential in arthritis care. The proof of effectiveness of such devices is today not possible. The surface electromyography as the only non-invasive method for the measurement of muscle activity is subject to strong methodological challenges. These include very high inter- and intra-individual variability, strong susceptibility to noise and cross-talk, and the need for extensive signal processing. Our own preliminary investigations that SEMG, at least in the current state of the technology, is not selective enough to reproducible detect clinically relevant differences in muscular co-contractions.Instrumented orthotics, that allows the measurement of forces and moments between the body segments, are not used in the current arthritis research today. The aim of this project is to develop and to validate new measurement method for assessment the muscular co-contractions in osteoarthritis, based on a combination of instrumented orthosis with SEMG.