Posts Tagged ‘EMG’

Soft tissue injuries (STIs) refer to the damage of muscle fibres, tendons and ligaments that connect the skeletal bones and account annually for $200billion in lost work hours across the US. This is by no means an insignificant sized sum nor is the fact that 34% or $68 billion dollars of all work related injuries in the US are defined as Soft tissue injuries (STIs).

The main reason for the cost of STIs is the failure of current diagnostic tools to provide soft-tissue-specific diagnosis. In relation to STI in back pain for example, x-ray machines only reveal significant results in 1 in 10,000 cases.

Litigious environments and stand offs between embellished STI cases or legitimate work injuries create the need for a ready solution to this troublesome issue.

A recent IEEE pulse article deals with this very challenge, it begins at the root of the problem, how it has been approached thus far, and how future solutions can ensure that these kinds of injuries are treated in a cost effective manner to improve clinical outcomes.

EFA solving the problem

The IEEE article reports on Insight Diagnostics Inc. (iDi) a Nevada based Diagnostics Company; outlining how they have developed state-of-the-art evaluation and diagnostic equipment for STIs. They combine the existing Electro-diagnostic Functional Assessment (EFA) with five medically accepted tests – Electromyography (EMG), Range of Motion (ROM), functional capacity evaluation (FCE), grip test and pinch test.

This method opens a comprehensive list of results to the clinician to determine the nature, extent, acuity, location and source of the referred pain, capturing information not only when a patient is static but also while the muscle is functioning dynamically (ROM). The EFA Assessment is nonloading, meaning there is no weight or resistance placed on the both the patient and the ROM apparatus whilst capturing full freedom of movement (flexion, extension, rotation, and lateral movements).

Currently iDi’s solution is a wired unit, with the patient tethered to a signal acquisition system using a complex wire harness. This provides less flexibility when performing tests within different work place environments and activities, resulting in the need for a more portable, and adaptable solution.

Wireless system

The relationship between iDi and Shimmer Research IEEE maintains is just the tonic for the advancement of this kind of technology, “Maximising potential gains while mitigating drawbacks led to a system that was validated for further commercial development.”

Shimmer Research, a leader in body worn sensor manufacture sought to deliver a wireless solution to the EFA wired offering. The Shimmer sensors configured for EMG, ROM (accelerometers), FCE pinch, and grip were chosen to develop the wireless EFA system based on features, commercial availability, and extensibility to include all the sensors in an EFA measurement suite.

Working in partnership the companies were able to address challenges of operating time, RF communication, network architecture, and device configuration to develop a reliable sensor based Personal Area Network (PAN) for the wireless EFA system.

Wired v Wireless EFA

Equipment (a) represents the Wireless Solution vs. Equipment (b) the Wired Solution

The development of a wireless system resulted in a ‘significant enhancement in system capability’ over the wired solution. Improved data quality, form factor, portability, number of channels, costs, and field maintenance were gained in the development of the wireless system.

One of the most notable outcomes was in relation to lead failure. Lead Failure is the primary failure mode of the wired EFA solution and can lead to a test being postponed. The wireless solution allows for the detection of the fault by a Shimmer device with an indicator illuminated at the failure location. The lead in question can be changed or, as the system is modular, the Shimmer in question can be easily swapped out. This results in a more robust solution, reduced complexity, lower initial system costs, elimination of custom components, and an increase in uptime.

The wireless EFA system will allow iDi to make a more significant impact in occupational and sports medicine, with greater ease of use, flexibility and portability, whilst offering a clear economic advantage.

Read the Full IEEE Pulse Article on pages 20-26.

The new EMG and GSR daughter cards have now been released and are officially available to Shimmer users. The EMG (Electromyogram) will prove a useful tool to existing users of the ECG daughter card with no software changes required except to support higher sampling rates, whilst readers will be familiar with the recent validation work carried out on the GSR (Galvonic Skin Response) daughter card for use in biomedical-orientated research applications.

The EMG daughter card is a highly economical wireless acquisition system for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by muscles using conventional disposable electrodes. The EMG works just like the existing Shimmer ECG daughter card allowing the addition of EMG measurement to existing Shimmer systems as a drop-in replacement. The EMG has low power consumption 180µA (leads connected) and a frequency range* of 5Hz-482Hz.

The GSR daughter card monitors skin conductivity between two reusable electrodes attached to two fingers of one hand and can be used in areas such as affective computing and to monitor aspects including stress, excitement, shock, and cognitive factors. The Shimmer GSR outperforms competing devices by using four digitally controlled measurement ranges. Developers use this capability to ensure accurate measurement across a variety of test subjects in real-world deployments.

The EMG and GSR daughter cards maintain an open system with no proprietary connectors, and have an open and extensible software and data format. They both capture data to the highest industry standards, and offer far superior flexibility due to wearable technology and small form factor allowing for greater usability in real world applications. Most notably, the EMG and GSR daughter cards match or often outperform competing gold standard sensor units, whilst offering better ergonomics at a cost-effective price.

A brief specification overview of the two daughter cards can be seen below:

EMG

GSR

The new daughter cards can be purchased by contacting info ‘at’ shimmer-research.com, and will be available to purchase from our online store in the coming weeks.

PRESS RELEASE

Dublin, Ireland – January 21, 2010 – The Shimmer wireless sensor platform has recently been awarded the CE mark, proving it has met EU consumer health and safety requirements for medical equipment. The CE certification also includes the ECG, EMG, and Motion capture Products.

The CE Certification coincides with the launch of the platforms new EMG (Electromyography), and GSR (Galvanic Skin Response – for testing characteristics such as stress levels) products, and reflects the platforms continued advancement of wireless sensing innovation.

Marketed and developed by Shimmer Research the Shimmer wireless sensor platform now offers a wide range of wireless sensing possibilities from physiological and kinematic motion capture to tilt and vibration sensors. Commenting on the expanding range of wireless sensors Kieran Daly, VP of Business Development at Shimmer Research noted that the company is ‘committed to driving wireless sensing innovation by providing sensors that capture data to the highest industry standards’. Indeed, this was made evident by validation work carried out on the ECG, Motion, and GSR sensors for ambulatory ECG, Temporal Gait Analysis, and GSR data capture in biomedical research settings. The information captured by Shimmer was comparable to, or outperformed larger, traditional wired units that would be considered gold standard.

Remarking on the validation results,  Daly stated that everybody at the company was ‘very pleased with the results, it’s a good representation of the quality the platform offers, and highlights how Shimmer performs against well known traditional wired units that can be costly and don’t offer the same flexibility’

To read the full Press Release, click here.

With the arrival of the New Year, the development of the Shimmer platform has continued apace. The platform has recently been awarded the CE mark, proving it has met EU consumer health and safety requirements for medical equipment. The CE certification also includes the ECG, EMG, and Gyro daughter cards.

The certification demonstrates the platforms conformance and compliance to the requirements of Annex IV of Council Directive 1999/5/EC.

microSD

For members of our website’s user community, the Shimmer microSD Media Guide has just been posted to our Download/Documents section. The guide details the compatibility requirements, qualification list results, and data recovery tools for Shimmer users running applications that utilise the microSD functionality.

To download the guide, please click here.