Development of a clinical robotic device for diagnosis, rehabilitation and treatm

描述（由申请人提供）： 前交叉韧带（ACL）损伤每年困扰至少20万年轻的美国人。至少有50%的人在受伤后的十年内患上骨关节炎（OA），这给美国的医疗保健系统带来了巨大的负担。尽管有大量的手术和治疗选择，但治疗ACL损伤个体的金标准尚不清楚。没有标准的，敏感的，可靠的方法来比较目前治疗的生物力学效果。此外，缺乏此类仪器使临床医生无法识别ACL损伤时发生的3D运动模式和特定接触力学的复杂变化，这些变化在OA的发作和进展中起着重要作用。我们新的生物力学评估平台集成了临床环境中关节功能的计算建模和3D测量，将改变研究和临床实践模式。它将弥合临床和实验室评估关节功能方法之间的差距，从而克服各自的缺点。一种符号计算方法，以平滑，显式的形式生成完整的非线性模型方程，允许应用现代控制理论和高效，实时实现的强大工具。我们的综合实验和对照框架允许将新的理论概念实施到实时临床环境中，这将垂直推进ACL损伤的治疗。所开发的设备最终可用作任何肌肉骨骼损伤或治疗后膝关节的评估、治疗计划、客观评估、比较和监测工具。由于其广泛的功能和应用，该仪器具有很高的商业价值，可以很容易地出售或授权给医院或康复中心。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury afflicts at least 200,000 young Americans annually. At least, 50 percent of individuals develop Osteoarthritis (OA) in the ten years after the injury and this imposes a substantial burden on the U.S. health care system. The gold standard for treating the ACL-injured individual is unknown, despite the vast array of surgical and treatment options available. No standard, sensitive, and reliable method exists to compare biomechanical effectiveness of current treatments. Moreover, the lack of such instruments leaves clinicians unable to identify the complicated changes in 3D motion patterns and particular contact mechanics that occur with ACL injury, which play an important role in onset and progression of OA. Our new biomechanical assessment platform that integrates computational modeling and 3D measurements of joint function in the clinical setting will shift research and clinical practice paradigms. It will bridge the gap between clinical and laboratory methods of assessing joint function, thereby overcoming the disadvantage of each. A symbolic computational approach that generates the full nonlinear model equations in a smooth, explicit form allows application of powerful tools from modern control theory and efficient, real-time implementation. Our integrated experimental and controls framework allows implementation of novel theoretical concepts into the real-time clinical setting that will vertically advance treatment of ACL injury. The developed device could ultimately be used as a tool for evaluation, treatment planning, objective assessment, comparison, and monitoring of the knee after any musculoskeletal injury or treatment. The instrument has high commercial value due to its broad capabilities and applications and can easily be sold or licensed to hospitals or rehabilitation centers.