IT Takes Steps to Help People With Joint Disorders
A new generation of devices to help people with joint disorders walk with ease and comfort are becoming a reality thanks to the work of GAIT, which is creating the world’s first ‘intelligent’ mechanical devices to support knee and ankle joints.
(PRWEB) December 12, 2004 -- A new generation of devices to help people with
joint disorders walk with ease and comfort are becoming a reality thanks to the
work of GAIT, which is creating the world’s first ‘intelligent’ mechanical
devices to support knee and ankle joints.
GAIT is developing the most
advanced leg supports designed to date, combining biomechanics with information
technologies to produce more comfortable and effective devices that could
benefit millions of people.
“The orthoses we are working with are
apparatus that are attached to the leg to support the knees and ankles of people
who have joint dysfunctions or lack muscle strength,” explains José Luis Pons at
the Instituto de Automática Industrial in Spain. “Traditionally they [orthoses]
are purely mechanical devices that provide rigidity to the leg when a patient is
standing and allow it to flex when they are walking.”
Traditional
devices, which rely exclusively on mechanical components, are often
uncomfortable to wear and though they provide necessary support they do not
necessarily allow patients to walk normally and with ease. GAIT is overcoming
those problems by incorporating IT into orthoses. “The orthoses we are designing
are unique because they contain electronic sensors and actuators to monitor
joint movement and adapt the orthosis to it,” Pons says.
Each leg
orthosis contains two sets of sensors, one to measure the force being exerted by
the patient’s movements on the joint and the other to determine the pressure
being exerted on the patient’s leg by the orthosis itself. The actuators use the
data obtained from the sensors to set and reset the movement parameters of the
mechanical components of the orthosis, thereby allowing the patient to move more
naturally.
“Without the incorporation of sensors and actuators,
traditional orthoses often cause people to walk abnormally resulting in higher
energy use and greater discomfort, something that is a significant problem
especially for the elderly,” Pons notes. “With this intelligent system patients
should be able to move more naturally because the device can react to the
activities they are performing, providing them with greater comfort regardless
of whether they are sitting, standing, walking or going up
stairs.”
Besides giving the patient support, the mechanical components of
the orthosis are designed to assist movement by acting much like a healthy
joint, returning the energy from the patient’s stride to the leg and reducing
the restrictions to movement. The sensors also monitor the comfort levels of the
patient, a critically important issue given that orthoses are often attached to
patients’ legs for long periods of time.
“Because orthotic devices are
attached tightly around the joints it is important that they are set correctly
to ensure maximum comfort and reduce the risk of friction which could cause
ulcers and sores when the patient sweats or when the weather is hot and humid,”
he explains.
All the data collected by the sensors are stored in
microchips in the orthoses which can be accessed and controlled wirelessly by
doctors allowing specialists to accurately monitor how well the patient is
responding to treatment and to adjust the movement parameters of the device with
high precision and therefore better adapt it to patients’ needs.
The
partners have so far developed several prototypes of their intelligent orthoses
and have tested them on healthy people. According to Pons, GAIT is planning to
run clinical trials with around a dozen patients in Spain and The Netherlands
from next March as one of the final steps toward developing a commercially
available variant of the system.
Please mention IST Results as the source
and, if publishing online, please hyperlink to: http://istresults.cordis.lu/
IST Results contact: Tara
Morris, Tel: +32-2-2861985, tmorris @ gopa-cartermill.com
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/12/prweb187764.htm