NDLI: Design of a lightweight passive orthosis for tremor suppression

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Fromme, Nicolas Philip Camenzind, Martin Riener, Robert Rossi, René M.
Abstract	Background Tremor is the most common movement disorder with the highest prevalence in the upper limbs. The mechanical suppression of involuntary movements is an alternative and additional treatment to medication or surgery. Here we present a new, soft, lightweight, task asjustable and passive orthosis for tremor suppression. Methods A new concept of a manual, textile-based, passive orthosis was designed with an integrated, task adjustable, air-filled structure, which can easily be inflated or deflated on-demand for a certain daily activity. The air-filled structure is placed on the dorsal side of the wrist and gets bent and compressed by movements when inflated. In a constant volume air-filled structure, air pressure increases while it is inflating, creating a counterforce to the compression caused by bending. We characterised the air-filled structure stiffness by measuring the reaction torque as a function of the angle of deflection on a test bench. Furthermore, we evaluated the efficacy of the developed passive soft orthosis by analysing the suppression of involuntary movements in the wrist of a tremor-affected patient during different activities of daily living (i.e. by calculating the power spectral densities of acceleration). Results By putting special emphasis on the comfort and wearability of the orthosis, we achieved a lightweight design (33 g). The measurements of the angular deflection and resulting reaction torques show non-linear, hysteretic, behaviour, as well as linear behaviour with a coefficient of determination (R2) between 0.95 and 0.99. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the soft orthosis significantly reduces tremor power for daily living activities, such as drinking from a cup, pouring water and drawing a spiral, by 74 to 82% (p = 0.03); confirmed by subjective tremor-reducing perception by the patient. Conclusion The orthosis we developed is a lightweight and unobtrusive assistive technology, which suppresses involuntary movements and shows high wearability properties, with the potential to be comfortable. This air-structure technology could also be applied to other movement disorders, like spasticity, or even be integrated into future exoskeletons and exosuits for the implementation of variable stiffness in the systems.
Related Links	https://jneuroengrehab.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12984-020-00673-7.pdf
Ending Page	15
Page Count	15
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	17430003
DOI	10.1186/s12984-020-00673-7
Journal	Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	17
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2020-04-09
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Neurosciences Neurology Rehabilitation Medicine Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Tremor Suppression Wearable Upper limb Orthosis Comfort Textile integrated Laser welding Soft Variable stiffness
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Health Informatics Rehabilitation
Journal Impact Factor	5.2/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	5.6/2023

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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