Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2018
Observational StudyAnterior-posterior displacement of center of pressure measured by insole foot pressure measurement system in subacute recovery stage of post-stroke hemiplegia.
Anterior-posterior displacement of center of pressure (AP_CoP) reflects stance limb function. However, AP_CoP's clinical applicability in post-stroke hemiplegia is unclear. ⋯ AP_CoP reflects overall gait function, impairments in more affected side and adaptation in less affected side in subacute recovery stage of post-stroke hemiplegia. It can be used as a clinically significant parameter for gait rehabilitation.
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2018
Hypothermia does not influence liver damage and function in a porcine polytrauma model.
Previous studies revealed evidence that induced hypothermia attenuates ischemic organ injuries after severe trauma. In the present study, the effect of hypothermia on liver damage was investigated in a porcine long term model of multi-system injury, consisting of blunt chest trauma, penetrating abdominal trauma, musculoskeletal injury, and hemorrhagic shockMETHODS: In 30 pigs, a standardized polytrauma including blunt chest trauma, penetrating abdominal trauma, musculoskeletal injury, and hemorrhagic shock of 45% of total blood volume was induced. Following trauma, hypothermia of 33∘C was induced for 12 h and intensive care treatment was evaluated for 48 h. As outcome parameters, we assessed liver function and serum transaminase levels as well as a histopathological analysis of tissue samples. A further 10 animals served as controls. ⋯ Induction of hypothermia could not significantly improve hepatic damage during the first 48 h following major trauma. Further studies focusing on multi-organ failure including a longer observation period are required to illuminate the impact of hypothermia on hepatic function in multiple trauma patients.
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Technol Health Care · Jul 2017
Comparative StudyA comparative study on the mechanical behavior of intervertebral disc using hyperelastic finite element model.
Lumbar disc herniation may result in excruciating pain due to it being one of the most common diseases related to changes of intervertebral disc (IVD). In order to find a better clinical treatment and prevention scheme for relieving the pain caused by spine degeneration, the mechanical behavior analysis of IVD must be studied. ⋯ Higher stress concentration resulted in more damage and ease of bringing out lumbar disc herniation. Numerical examples of FE simulation indicate that the FEM with hyperelastic constitutive model has very good capability for analyzing the mechanical behaviors of IVD.
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2017
Comparative StudyComparison between heart rate variability and pulse rate variability during different sleep stages for sleep apnea patients.
The usefulness of heart rate variability (HRV) in the clinical research has been verified in numerous studies. However, it is controversy that using pulse rate variability (PRV) as a surrogate of HRV in different clinical applications. ⋯ PRV measurement could present the similar results as HRV analysis for sleep apnea patients during different sleep stages.
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2017
An Internet of Things platform architecture for supporting ambient assisted living environments.
Internet of Things (IoT) is the logical further development of today's Internet, enabling a huge amount of devices to communicate, compute, sense and act. IoT sensors placed in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) environments, enable the context awareness and allow the support of the elderly in their daily routines, ultimately allowing an independent and safe lifestyle. The vast amount of data that are generated and exchanged between the IoT nodes require innovative context modeling approaches that go beyond currently used models. Current paper presents and evaluates an open interoperable platform architecture in order to utilize the technical characteristics of IoT and handle the large amount of generated data, as a solution to the technical requirements of AAL applications.