Unobstructive Body Area Networks (BAN) for Efficient Movement Monitoring.

Unobstructive Body Area Networks (BAN) for Efficient Movement Monitoring.

Filed under: Rehab Centers

Sensors (Basel). 2012; 12(9): 12473-88
Felisberto F, Costa N, Fdez-Riverola F, Pereira A

The technological advances in medical sensors, low-power microelectronics and miniaturization, wireless communications and networks have enabled the appearance of a new generation of wireless sensor networks: the so-called wireless body area networks (WBAN). These networks can be used for continuous monitoring of vital parameters, movement, and the surrounding environment. The data gathered by these networks contributes to improve users’ quality of life and allows the creation of a knowledge database by using learning techniques, useful to infer abnormal behaviour. In this paper we present a wireless body area network architecture to recognize human movement, identify human postures and detect harmful activities in order to prevent risk situations. The WBAN was created using tiny, cheap and low-power nodes with inertial and physiological sensors, strategically placed on the human body. Doing so, in an as ubiquitous as possible way, ensures that its impact on the users’ daily actions is minimum. The information collected by these sensors is transmitted to a central server capable of analysing and processing their data. The proposed system creates movement profiles based on the data sent by the WBAN’s nodes, and is able to detect in real time any abnormal movement and allows for a monitored rehabilitation of the user.
HubMed – rehab

 

An intelligent knowledge-based and customizable home care system framework with ubiquitous patient monitoring and alerting techniques.

Filed under: Rehab Centers

Sensors (Basel). 2012; 12(8): 11154-86
Chen YL, Chiang HH, Yu CW, Chiang CY, Liu CM, Wang JH

This study develops and integrates an efficient knowledge-based system and a component-based framework to design an intelligent and flexible home health care system. The proposed knowledge-based system integrates an efficient rule-based reasoning model and flexible knowledge rules for determining efficiently and rapidly the necessary physiological and medication treatment procedures based on software modules, video camera sensors, communication devices, and physiological sensor information. This knowledge-based system offers high flexibility for improving and extending the system further to meet the monitoring demands of new patient and caregiver health care by updating the knowledge rules in the inference mechanism. All of the proposed functional components in this study are reusable, configurable, and extensible for system developers. Based on the experimental results, the proposed intelligent homecare system demonstrates that it can accomplish the extensible, customizable, and configurable demands of the ubiquitous healthcare systems to meet the different demands of patients and caregivers under various rehabilitation and nursing conditions.
HubMed – rehab

 

Consequences of neurologic lesions assessed by Barthel Index after Botox(®) injection may be underestimated.

Filed under: Rehab Centers

Ther Clin Risk Manag. 2012; 8: 385-91
Dionyssiotis Y, Kiourtidis D, Karvouni A, Kaliontzoglou A, Kliafas I

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the consequences of neurologic lesions are underestimated when the Barthel Index (BI) is used to assess the clinical outcome of botulinum toxin injection.The records for all in- and outpatients with various neurologic lesions (stroke, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and so forth) who had been referred to the authors’ departments and who had received botulinum toxin type A (Botox(®)) for spasticity within a 4-year period (2008-2011) were examined retrospectively. BI data were collected and analyzed.The BI score was found to have increased in follow-up assessments (P = 0.048). No correlation was found between the degree of spasticity and the BI score.The specific injection of Botox in patients with neurologic lesions was not strongly correlated with a significant functional outcome according to the BI. The results of this study suggest that clinicians need to look at other measurement scales for the assessment of significant outcomes of Botox in the rehabilitation process after neurologic lesions.
HubMed – rehab

 

The influence of smoking and surgical technique on the accuracy of mucosa-supported stereolithographic surgical guide in complete edentulous upper jaws.

Filed under: Rehab Centers

Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2012 Nov; 16(11): 1546-53
Cassetta M, Pompa G, Di Carlo S, Piccoli L, Pacifici A, Pacifici L

The accuracy of a stereolithographic surgical guide depends on several variables that can affect at any time from the software-planning stage to the surgical field. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of implants inserted using a single mucosa-supported stereolithographic surgical guide determining also the influence of surgical technique (fixed and not-fixed) and smoking on the deviation parameters. 11 patients, totally edentate in the upper arch and needed an implant-prosthetic rehabilitation, were selected. 95 implants were planned and inserted. The pre- and post-operative CT images were compared using software. Global, coronal (Mean: 1.65; Range: 3.00-0.13; SD:0.56) and apical (Mean: 2.15; Range: 4.23-0.34; SD:0.81), and angular (Mean: 4.62; Range: 15.25-0.28; SD: 2.74) deviation values were determined. The mean values of mucosa thickness in smokers and nonsmokers patients were 4.53 mm and 3.42 mm respectively (p < .05). The accuracy data showed a better result for the angular deviation when the surgical template was fixed (p = .002) and a better global apical deviation in the nonsmokers (p <. 05). It is essential, especially in smoker patients, to respect a minimum safety distance of 3 mm from limiting anatomic structures.  
HubMed – rehab

 

Related Rehab Centers Information…