Technology and Health Care - Volume 28, issue 1

Authors: Lennerz, Carsten | Horlbeck, Lorenz | Weigand, Severin | Grebmer, Christian | Blazek, Patrick | Brkic, Amir | Semmler, Verena | Haller, Bernhard | Reents, Tilko | Hessling, Gabriele | Deisenhofer, Isabel | Lienkamp, Markus | Kolb, Christof | O’Connor, Matthew

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Electric cars are increasingly used for public and private transportation and represent possible sources of electromagnetic interference (EMI). Potential implications for patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) range from unnecessary driving restrictions to life-threatening device malfunction. This prospective, cross-sectional study was designed to assess the EMI risk of electric cars on CIED function. METHODS: One hundred and eight consecutive patients with CIEDs presenting for routine follow-up between May 2014 and January 2015 were enrolled in the study. The participants were exposed to electromagnetic fields generated by the four most common electric cars (Nissan Leaf, …Tesla Model S, BMW i3, VW eUp) while roller-bench test-driving at Institute of Automotive Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University, Munich. The primary endpoint was any abnormalities in CIED function (e.g. oversensing with pacing-inhibition, inappropriate therapy or mode-switching) while driving or charging electric cars as assessed by electrocardiographic recordings and device interrogation. RESULTS: No change in device function or programming was seen in this cohort which is representative of contemporary CIED devices. The largest electromagnetic field detected was along the charging cable during high current charging (116.5 μ T). The field strength in the cabin was lower (2.1–3.6 μ T). CONCLUSIONS: Electric cars produce electromagnetic fields; however, they did not affect CIED function or programming in our cohort. Driving and charging of electric cars is likely safe for patients with CIEDs. Show more

Keywords: Electric cars, electromagnetic interference (EMI), cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED), pacemaker, defibrillator

DOI: 10.3233/THC-191891

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 1-12, 2020

Authors: Tian, Bing | Jing, Quan-Min | Dong, Hai | Guan, Shao-Yi | Wang, Geng | Xu, Kai | Liu, Hai-Wei | Wang, Bin | Sui, Li-You

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate failure factors in retrograde wire-guided cannulation (retrograde approach) for the treatment of coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO). METHODS: Data of 285 patients treated for CTO using retrograde approach in the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region from August 2004 to May 2016 were collected. RESULTS: The average age of the 285 patients was 63.89 ± 11.3 years old. Multivariate analysis revealed that the operation risk factors include the number of diseased vessels, collateral circulation, as well as whether anterograde intervention for CTO target vessels …was previously performed (OR = 0.875, 95% CI = 0.779–0.940, P = 0.026) and whether other vessels were intervened (OR = 22.372, 95% CI = 2.059–243.031, P = 0.011). CONCLUSION: Based on the present study, the success rate of retrograde approach for CTO was negatively correlated with the number of diseased vessels and collateral circulation. It was furthermore of importance whether anterograde intervention for CTO target vessels was previously performed and whether other vessels beside CTO vessels were intervened, which were also risk factors. Show more

Keywords: Coronary heart disease, PCI, chronic total occlusion, retrograde wire-guided cannulation, ejection fraction

DOI: 10.3233/THC-170946

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 13-22, 2020

Authors: Gao, Yongxiang | Zhao, Zhi | Chen, Yimin | Mahara, Gehendra | Huang, Jialing | Lin, Zhuochen | Zhang, Jinxin

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: An electroencephalogram (EEG) is the most dominant method for detecting epileptic seizures. However, the existing techniques use single-channel EEGs from public databases and the sample size is small. OBJECTIVE: This study proposes a strategy to distinguish multichannel EEGs for health control, particularly the interictal and ictal multichannel EEGs of epileptic patients. METHOD: We calculated five features (variance, Pearson correlation coefficient, Hoeffding’s D measure, Shannon entropy, inter-quartile range), which are based on maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform. These features were then fed into linear discriminant analysis for classification purposes. Finally, the proposed method …was tested on data on 34 healthy people, 21 interictal patients and 30 ictal patients taken from a hospital. RESULTS: Our experimental results show that the accuracy between healthy and epileptic seizures was 96.88% and the area under the curve (AUC) is 1. The accuracy between interictal and epileptic seizures was 94.12% and the AUC was 0.97. We also obtained an accuracy and AUC equal to 1 for discrimination of interictal EEGs from normal. Finally, we obtained an AUC of 0.83 and an accuracy of 85.88% for discrimination in these three classes. Therefore, our study achieves sufficient performance. CONCLUSIONS: Our proposed method can serve as an auxiliary tool for clinicians who wish to make clinical decisions and reduces the burden of detecting epileptic seizures. Show more

Keywords: MODWT, classification, electroencephalogram signals, LDA, epileptic seizures

DOI: 10.3233/THC-181548

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 23-33, 2020

Authors: Haralur, Satheesh B. | Alqarni, Asma Salem | Asiri, Mona Ayed | Asiri, Abdulaziz Khalid

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Clinicians routinely encounter the endodontically treated teeth with wide flared canals and mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) repair on the canal wall. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of customized glass reinforced composite (FRC) post and reshaped root canal along with different acid etching protocol of MTA surface on push-out bond strength (PBS) in flared, MTA repaired root canal. METHODS: Ninety recently extracted single-rooted premolar teeth were sequentially subjected to root canal obturation, post space preparation, flaring, and MTA application. The samples were randomly divided into 3 groups of control (no relining or reshaping), …customized FRC post by relining with self-adhesive resin cement and reshaping the canal with flowable composite. Each group was subdivided into 3 subgroups (n = 10) as no surface treatment, 37% H 3 PO 4 and 19% EDTA etching of MTA surface. Teeth samples cemented with FRC post were sectioned into 2 mm and push-out testing. RESULTS: Control group had the lowest PBS at 1.988 N. The PBS values for the groups with customized post relining were 8.489 N, 8.888 N and 7.911 N for control, H 3 PO 4 etch and EDTA etch. The corresponding PBS values for root canal reshaping were 7.323 N, 8.318 N and 7.785 N. CONCLUSIONS: Customized FRC post with 37% H 3 PO 4 etching is advised for the flared and MTA repaired root canals. Show more

Keywords: Flared root canal, mineral trioxide aggregate, customized fiber post, root canal reshaping

DOI: 10.3233/THC-181586

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 35-44, 2020

Authors: Shin, Doo-Chul

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The gait ability of stroke patients is highly related with trunk control. Studies that addressed the effects of trunk control training using visual feedback on gait parameters of stroke patients are lacking. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of smartphone-based visual feedback trunk control training for improvement of trunk control and spatio-temporal gait parameter in stroke patients. METHODS: Twenty-four stroke patients participated in this study. Participants were randomly allocated to the experimental and control groups. Both groups completed conventional rehabilitation over 4 weeks. The experimental group additionally …received smartphone-based visual feedback trunk control training for 4 weeks. The primary outcome of this study was evaluated by trunk impairment scale and spatio-temporal gait parameters. RESULTS: The trunk impairment scale in the experimental group was significantly improved compared to the control group (P < 0.05). The spatio-temporal gait parameters are significantly more different in the experimental group than in the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Additional smartphone-based visual feedback trunk control training may improve trunk control and spatio-temporal gait parameter in chronic stroke patients. Show more

Keywords: Gait, rehabilitation, cellular phone, stroke, sensory feedback

DOI: 10.3233/THC-191647

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 45-55, 2020

Authors: Namazi, Hamidreza | Aghasian, Erfan | Ala, Tirdad Seifi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Analysis of human brain activity is an important topic in human neuroscience. Human brain activity can be studied by analyzing the electroencephalography (EEG) signal. In this way, scientists have employed several techniques that investigate nonlinear dynamics of EEG signals. Fractal theory as a promising technique has shown its capabilities to analyze the nonlinear dynamics of time series. Since EEG signals have fractal patterns, in this research we analyze the variations of fractal dynamics of EEG signals between four datasets that were collected from healthy subjects with open-eyes and close-eyes conditions, patients with epilepsy who did and patients who did not …face seizures. The obtained results showed that EEG signal during seizure has greatest complexity and the EEG signal during the seizure-free interval has lowest complexity. In order to verify the obtained results in case of fractal analysis, we employ approximate entropy, which indicates the randomness of time series. The obtained results in case of approximate entropy certified the fractal analysis results. The obtained results in this research show the effectiveness of fractal theory to investigate the nonlinear structure of EEG signal between different conditions. Show more

Keywords: Electroencephalography (EEG) signal, fractal theory, complexity, approximate entropy

DOI: 10.3233/THC-181579

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 57-66, 2020

Authors: Shu, Yuting | Ye, Ping | Zhang, Jie | Chang, Zhaohua

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Drug-eluting stent technology has rapidly developed in recent years. In particular, stents are used in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), which has become a vital method in clinic treatment. Although various methods are currently used to prepare drug-eluting stents, these methods are associated with respective limitations. OBJECTIVE: To design equipment for preparing drug-eluting stents with single-sided coating and to precisely accomplish the drug-coating process for a single side. METHODS: This coating equipment prepared stents in three stages: the precise displacement and translational motion and rotational motion of the operating platform; the recognition and …positioning of the stent strut; and the utilisation of a pL-scale inkjet system. In order to control and synchronise the work of each subsystem, a central processing unit was installed. RESULTS: Through the analysis and solutions of various problems occurring in the experiment, the spraying equipment was improved, and its functions were perfected. Thus, the successful operation of the spraying equipment was realised. CONCLUSIONS: The design of the equipment introduced in this article meets the requirements for preparing drug-eluting stents. Show more

Keywords: Coating equipment design, drug-eluting stent, single-sided drug coating

DOI: 10.3233/THC-181532

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 67-76, 2020

Authors: Lutter, Christoph | Schöffl, Volker | Hotfiel, Thilo | Schmitz, Christoph | Milz, Stefan | Strohm, Peter

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (rESWT) is an effective and safe non-invasive therapeutic option for various musculoskeletal pathologies. However, data on possible application of radial extracorporeal shock waves (rESWs) on soft tissue components of fingers is still scarce. OBJECTIVE: We now aimed to analyze the feasibility of applying rESWs to human fingers ex vivo. METHODS: Fresh frozen human cadaveric fingers were exposed to rESWs of varying energy density. The penetration of the rESWs into the soft tissue was determined using pressure sensitive Fuji films that were placed underneath the flexor tendons and …other soft tissue components at the proximal phalanx. Then, rESWs were applied and activation of the Fuji film was recorded. Software based image analysis was performed on all films treated with rESWT under ultrasound gel. RESULTS: Penetration of the rESWs through the soft tissue was detected in all settings. Increasing energy density of the rESWs resulted in increasing film activation. Image analysis of films used under ultrasound showed a significant difference among the groups. CONCLUSION: The results of this study demonstrate that rESWs can penetrate soft tissues including the flexor tendons of human cadaveric fingers. rESWT should be considered as a valuable potential therapeutic option of different finger pathologies. Further studies focusing on the clinical application of rESWT for finger pathologies are required. Show more

Keywords: Finger, tendinopathy

DOI: 10.3233/THC-191654

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 77-83, 2020

Authors: Fenwick, A. | Kröger, N. | Jovic, S. | Hölscher-Doht, S. | Meffert, R. | Jansen, H.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND : Fractures of the talus often lead to permanent restrictions of the affected limb. Possible alterations after these fractures in gait have not been evaluated yet. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate possible alterations of gait by pedybarography after talar fractures. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective single-centre study at a level I trauma center. Twenty patients with operatively treated talar fractures were followed up. Objective and subjective function of the ankle was measured using range of motion, clinical scores and dynamic pedobarography (emed-M; Novel, Germany). RESULTS: There were 11 talar neck and 9 …talar body fractures. All patients received screw fixation. There was a significant reduction in range of motion. The outcome was moderate to satisfying and the severity of the injury correlated with the clinical outcome and the range of motion. The presence of posttraumatic arthritis and joint incongruity lead to a decreased function of ankle and subtalar joint and resulted in a worse clinical outcome. AVN rate was associated to initial displacement. Dynamic pedobarography showed no significant changes in gait pattern. CONCLUSIONS: Fractures of the talus lead to dissatisfaction, pain and malfunction. However, a change in gait pattern could not be proved. Show more

Keywords: Talar fracture, pedobarography, gait, outcome

DOI: 10.3233/THC-191667

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 85-92, 2020

Authors: Zhang, Yibin | Cao, Wujing | Yu, Hongliu | Meng, Qiaoling | Chen, Wenming

Article Type: Other

Abstract: BACKGROUND: A prosthetic knee is the key component of the transfemoral prosthesis. The performance of the prosthetic knee determines the walking ability of transfemoral amputees. OBJECTIVE: This study proposes a microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knee with a novel hydraulic damper and evaluates the performance of the prosthetic knee by gait symmetry index. METHODS: The homotaxial knee joint with electrical-controlled hydraulic cylinder which adjusts knee flexion and extension damping independently and continuously by single motor was designed. Gait symmetry tests under different walking speeds (0.6 m/s, 1.1 m/s and 1.6 m/s) were conducted to evaluate the performance of the …proposed microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knee. RESULTS: The symmetry index values indicated that the stance phase was more asymmetry than swing phase. In the swing phase, the knee angle symmetry was observed in different speeds. The number values of symmetry index were smaller than 15% in swing phase. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knee could meet the demands of walking. Show more

Keywords: Microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knee, hydraulic damper, transfemoral amputee, gait symmetry, walking ability

DOI: 10.3233/THC-191764

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 93-97, 2020