Novel device screens ligament repair
University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers built up a new innovation that can measure whether an injured tendon has healed well enough for a person to return to physical activity.
Researchers devised a way of non-invasively measuring tendon tension while a man participates in physical exercises, such as walking or running.
Muscles produce development by pulling on the tendons that connect them to the skeleton, but measuring the powers transmitted by a tendon within a person is testing.
Wearable’s can measure our movement
As of now, wearable’s can measure our movement, but don’t give data on the muscle powers that produce the development.
Researchers developed a simple, wearable, non-invasive device that can put on the skin over a tendon to measure tendon force.
The device evaluates the vibration characteristics of changes in a tendon when it experiences stacking.
Darryl Thelen, study lead author, said, we found a way to measure the vibrational characteristics. In this case, the speed of a shear wave traveling along a tendon and then we went further and determined how we can interpret this measurement to find the tensile stress within the tendon.
The device can assess what happens in the tendon when a person changes their length or speed.
The team successfully demonstrated the capability of the device to measure forces in the Achilles tendon, the patellar and the hamstring. By assessing the behavior of muscles and tendons, clinicians may able to plan more effective treatments for patients with musculoskeletal injury or disease.
The new technology has great potential, both for applications in basic science and the clinical field.
Tendon force measures could use to guide treatments of people with gait disorders. It may also useful to objectively assess when a repaired tendon is sufficiently healed to function normally and allow a person to return to activity.
