Journal of Medical and Biological Engineering

Purpose: Articular cartilage is known to be mechanically anisotropic. In this paper, the acoustic anisotropy of bovine articular cartilage and the effects of freeze-thaw cycling on acoustic anisotropy were investigated. Methods: We developed apparatus and methods that use a magnetic L-shaped sample holder, which allowed minimal handling of a tissue, reduced the number of measurements compared to previous studies, and produced highly reproducible results. Results: SOS was greater in the direction perpendicular to the articular surface compared to the direction parallel to the articular surface (N=17, P = 0...

Purpose: While the spread of COVID-19 is increased, new, automatic, and reliable methods for accurate detection are essential to reduce the exposure of the medical experts to the outbreak. X-ray imaging, although limited to specific visualizations, may be helpful for the diagnosis. In this study, the problem of automatic classification of pulmonary diseases, including the recently emerged COVID-19, from X-ray images, is considered. Methods: Deep Learning has proven to be a remarkable method to extract massive high-dimensional features from medical images...

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the effective biomechanical technique for suctioning phlegm. Methods: A novel tracheal suctioning simulator combined with a motion capture system was used to calculate the amount of simulated phlegm suctioned and the biomechanical parameters of the associated suctioning manoeuvre. A laboratory study, including 12 nurses with > 3 years of suctioning experience and 12 nursing students without any clinical suctioning experience, was conducted...

The objective of this study was to improve the biomechanical performance of titanium (Ti) using a biocompatible electrospun nanofiber matrix. The study is based on the hypothesis that coating a Ti surface with a nanofiber matrix (NFM) made of collagen (CG) and polycaprolactone (PCL) electrospun nanofibers could increase the mechanical fixation of Ti/bone by improving the surface and cytocompatibility properties of Ti. This study prepared Ti samples with and without CG-PCL NFM coatings. This study determined the in vitro effects of each group of Ti samples on the surface topography and cytocompatibility (osteoblast cell adhesion, proliferation, mineralization and protein adsorption) properties...

The aim of this study was to establish a web-based platform for exchanging medical device management and maintenance experiences to enhance the professional competency of clinical engineers (CEs), which ensures the quality of medical devices and increases patients' satisfaction with medical services. Medical devices play an essential role in diagnosis and disease management. CEs are responsible for providing functional medical devices that contribute worthwhile functions to a medical service to improve patients' health and safety...

This article represents a multidisciplinary approach to biomechanics (engineering + medicine) in the field of "collum femoris" fractures. One possible treatment method for femoral neck fractures, especially for young people, is the application of cancellous (i.e. lag or femoral) screws (with full or cannulated cross-section) made of Ti6Al4V or stainless steel. This paper therefore aims to offer our own numerical model of cancellous screws together with an assessment of them. The new, simple numerical model presented here is derived together with inputs and boundary conditions and is characterized by rapid solution...

Radial head fractures are becoming a major public health problem and are an increasingly important target for both clinical and mechanical researchers. In this work, comparative biomechanical analyses of the stress-strain state of a healthy elbow joint and elbow joints with radial head compression from 2 to 5 mm due to injury are performed. Three-dimensional models of the elbow joint with cartilage surfaces and ligaments were constructed based on the results of computed tomography. This study is focused on an elbow joint range of motion ranging from 0° to 120° flexion...

This study investigated the influence of human head impact on the severity of traumatic brain injury. Simulation of the dynamic impact of a human head was performed using FEM (finite element method) and employing HIC (Head Injury Criterion). The study of traumatic brain injury included impacts with the occiput, temporal, forehead, and parietal part of the head, and the impact velocity at the surface ranged from 1 to 7 m/s. The following characteristics were considered and analyzed in the simulation: duration of the impact, intracranial pressure, HIC, and change in accelerations at the center of gravity of the brain...

The increasing amount of data in biomechanics research has greatly increased the importance of developing advanced multivariate analysis and machine learning techniques, which are better able to handle "big data". Consequently, advances in data science methods will expand the knowledge for testing new hypotheses about biomechanical risk factors associated with walking and running gait-related musculoskeletal injury. This paper begins with a brief introduction to an automated three-dimensional (3D) biomechanical gait data collection system: 3D GAIT, followed by how the studies in the field of gait biomechanics fit the quantities in the 5 V's definition of big data: volume, velocity, variety, veracity, and value...

Gain-of-function mutations in the pore-forming subunit of IKs channels, KCNQ1, lead to short QT syndrome (SQTS) and lethal arrhythmias. However, how mutant IKs channels cause SQTS and the possibility of IKs -specific pharmacological treatment remain unclear. V141M KCNQ1 is a SQTS associated mutation. We studied its effect on IKs gating properties and changes in the action potentials (AP) of human ventricular myocytes. Xenopus oocytes were used to study the gating mechanisms of expressed V141M KCNQ1/KCNE1 channels...

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), caused by entrapment of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel, impairs hand function including dexterous manipulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of CTS on force coordination and muscle coherence during low-intensity sustained precision pinch while the wrist assumed different postures. Twenty subjects (10 CTS patients and 10 asymptomatic controls) participated in this study. An instrumented pinch device was used to measure the thumb and index finger forces while simultaneously collecting surface electromyographic activities of the abductor pollicis brevis (APB) and first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscles...

Ultrasound examinations are a standard procedure in the clinical diagnosis of many diseases. However, the efficacy of an ultrasound examination is highly dependent on the skill and experience of the operator, which has prompted proposals for ultrasound simulation systems to facilitate training and education in hospitals and medical schools. The key technology of the medical ultrasound simulation system is the probe tracking method that is used to determine the position and inclination angle of the sham probe, since this information is used to display the ultrasound images in real time...

Exogenous crosslinking has been shown to have potential for treating disc degeneration and back pain due to its ability to increase the strength and toughness of the annulus fibrosus, increase intervertebral joint stability, decrease intradiscal pressure, and increase fluid flow through the disc. Some results imply that crosslink augmentation may also lead to changes in the compressive load sharing properties of the disc. The objective of the present study was to evaluate directional stress distribution changes of the disc following genipin crosslinking treatment...

The needs for light-weight and soft smart clothing in homecare have been rising since the past decade. Many smart textile sensors have been developed and applied to automatic physiological and user-centered environmental status recognition. In the present study, we propose wearable multi-sensor smart clothing for homecare monitoring based on an economic fabric electrode with high elasticity and low resistance. The wearable smart clothing integrated with heterogeneous sensors is capable to measure multiple human biosignals (ECG and respiration), acceleration, and gyro information...

Sintered dicalcium pyrophosphate (SDCP), a synthetic pyrophosphate analog, has shown potential for the management of osteoporosis. The long-term oral toxicity and anti-osteoporotic effect of SDCP in a postmenopausal osteoporosis rat model were evaluated in this study. SDCP was orally administered to bilateral ovariectomized (OVX) Wistar rats at a dose of 0.75 mg/kg daily for 24 weeks following by 2 weeks of observation. There were no abnormal findings in clinical signs of toxicity, food consumption, body weight, blood examination, necropsy, and histological inspection attributable to the ingestion of SDCP...

Medical image fusion plays an important role in clinical applications such as image-guided surgery, image-guided radiotherapy, noninvasive diagnosis, and treatment planning. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-modal medical image fusion method based on simplified pulse-coupled neural network and quaternion wavelet transform. The proposed fusion algorithm is capable of combining not only pairs of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) images, but also pairs of CT and proton-density-weighted MR images, and multi-spectral MR images such as T1 and T2...

The aim of this study was to develop a semi automatic image processing algorithm (AIPA) based on the simultaneous information provided by X-ray and radioisotopic images to determine the biokinetic models of Tc-99m radiopharmaceuticals from quantification of image radiation activity in murine models. These radioisotopic images were obtained by a CCD (charge couple device) camera coupled to an ultrathin phosphorous screen in a preclinical multimodal imaging system (Xtreme, Bruker). The AIPA consisted of different image processing methods for background, scattering and attenuation correction on the activity quantification...

This paper presents an accurate nonlinear classification method that can help physicians diagnose seizure in electroencephalographic (EEG) signal characterized by a disturbance in temporal and spectral content. This is accomplished by applying four steps. First, different EEG signals containing healthy, ictal and seizure-free (inter-ictal) activities are decomposed by empirical mode decomposition method. The instantaneous amplitudes and frequencies of resulted bands (intrinsic mode functions, IMF) are then tracked by the direct quadrature method (DQ)...

In this simulation study, a wireless passive LC-tank sensor system was characterized. Given the application of continuous bladder monitoring, a specific system was proposed in terms of coil geometries and electronic circuitry. Coupling coefficients were spatially mapped by simulation, as a function of both coil distance, and longitudinal and transverse translation of the sensor relative to the antenna. Further, two interrogation schemes were outlined. One was an auto-balancing bridge for computing the sensor-system impedance...

There are many unanswered questions about giant cell tumor (GCT) treatment and not enough attention is paid to the biomechanics of the current treatment methods. Treatment methods have not changed much, and the best method remains controversial to some degree, due to the lack of adequate clinical and biomechanical investigations. Biomechanical tests, including in vitro mechanical experiments combined with finite element analysis, are very helpful in assessing the efficiency of the surgical methods employed and in determining the optimal method of surgery...