The human skeletal muscle drives skeletal movement through contraction. Embedding its functional information into the human morphological framework and constructing a digital twin of skeletal muscle for simulating physical and physiological functions of skeletal muscle are of great significance for the study of "virtual physiological humans". Based on relevant literature both domestically and internationally, this paper firstly summarizes the technical framework for constructing skeletal muscle digital twins, and then provides a review from five aspects including skeletal muscle digital twins modeling technology, skeletal muscle data collection technology, simulation analysis technology, simulation platform and human medical image database. On this basis, it is pointed out that further research is needed in areas such as skeletal muscle model generalization, accuracy improvement, and model coupling. The methods and means of constructing skeletal muscle digital twins summarized in the paper are expected to provide reference for researchers in this field, and the development direction pointed out can serve as the next focus of research.
The gait acquisition system can be used for gait analysis. The traditional wearable gait acquisition system will lead to large errors in gait parameters due to different wearing positions of sensors. The gait acquisition system based on marker method is expensive and needs to be used by combining with the force measurement system under the guidance of rehabilitation doctors. Due to the complex operation, it is inconvenient for clinical application. In this paper, a gait signal acquisition system that combines foot pressure detection and Azure Kinect system is designed. Fifteen subjects are organized to participate in gait test, and relevant data are collected. The calculation method of gait spatiotemporal parameters and joint angle parameters is proposed, and the consistency analysis and error analysis of the gait parameters of proposed system and camera marking method are carried out. The results show that the parameters obtained by the two systems have good consistency (Pearson correlation coefficient r ≥ 0.9, P < 0.05) and have small error (root mean square error of gait parameters is less than 0.1, root mean square error of joint angle parameters is less than 6). In conclusion, the gait acquisition system and its parameter extraction method proposed in this paper can provide reliable data acquisition results as a theoretical basis for gait feature analysis in clinical medicine.
Objective
To explore the application value of standardized patient (SP)-based teaching method in the teaching of medical history taking for international students.
Methods
During the autumn semester of 2017, 96 international medical students were randomly divided into two groups, with 48 students in the SP-based teaching group and 48 students in the conventional teaching group. The test scores of medical history taking in English in internal medical practice of the two groups were compared. The teaching feedback from the international students was collected and evaluated by online questionnaire survey.
Results
The scores of medical history taking examination in internal medical practice of the students using SP-based teaching method were higher than those of the students using conventional teaching method (86.5±9.7 vs.78.2±10.6), and the difference was statistically significant (t=3.983, P<0.001). According to the questionnaire analysis, in terms of whether the current teaching method could enhance learning interest, improve communication ability, promote clinical skills, train clinical thinking, and highlight humanistic care, students with positive views in the SP-based teaching group accounted for 92.86%, 97.62%, 85.71%, 90.48%, and 95.24%, respectively, while students with positive views in the conventional teaching group accounted for 90.00%, 87.50%, 82.50%, 77.50%, and 97.50%, respectively, and the differences were not statistically significant (P>0.05).
Conclusions
Well-trained SP has a good application value in clinical practice of internal medicine and diagnostics teaching for international students. SP-based teaching method has been accepted and supported by the majority of international medical students who have experienced it.
In recent years, wearable devices grew up gradually and developed increasingly. Aiming at the problems of skin sensibility and the change of electrode impedance of Ag/AgCl electrode in the process of long-term electrocardiogram (ECG) signal monitoring and acquisition, this paper discussed in detail a new sensor technology–fabric electrode, which is used for ECG signal acquisition. First, the concept and advantages of fabric electrode were introduced, and then the common substrate materials and conductive materials for fabric electrode were discussed and evaluated. Next, we analyzed the advantages and disadvantages from the aspect of textile structure, putting forward the evaluation system of fabric electrode. Finally, the deficiencies of fabric electrode were analyzed, and the development prospects and directions were prospected.
Abdominal imaging is one of the important clinical applications of magnetic resonance imagining, but image degradation due to respiratory motion remains a major problem. Retrospective respiratory navigator gating technique is an effective approach to alleviate such degradation but is subject to long scan time and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) efficiency. In this study, a modified retrospective navigator gating technique with variable over-sampling ratio acquisition and weighted average reconstruction algorithm is presented. Experiments in phantom and the imaging results of seven volunteers demonstrated that the proposed method provided an enhanced SNR and reduced ghost-to-image ratio compared to the conventional method. The proposed method can also be used to reduce imaging time while maintaining comparable image quality.
The growing rate of public health problem for increasing number of people afflicted with poor sleep quality suggests the importance of developing portable sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring systems. The system could record the overnight EEG signal, classify sleep stages automatically, and grade the sleep quality. We in our laboratory collected the signals in an easy way using a single channel with three electrodes which were placed in frontal position in case of the electrode drop-off during sleep. For a test, either silver disc electrodes or disposable medical electrocardiographic electrodes were used. Sleep EEG recorded by the two types of electrodes was compared to each other so as to find out which type was more suitable. Two algorithms were used for sleep EEG processing, i.e. amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG) algorithm and sample entropy algorithm. Results showed that both algorithms could perform sleep stage classification and quality evaluation automatically. The present designed system could be used to monitor overnight sleep and provide quantitative evaluation.
Objective To investigate the assembl ing and cl inical appl ication of the video output system util izing teaching sight glass of surgical microscope. Methods Between June 2009 and April 2010, 10 patients with craniocervical junction malformation were treated by the method of transoral-transpharyngeal approach with the microscope and videooutput system under the direct vision. There were 6 males and 4 females with an average age of 32 years (range, 13-52 years). Three cases had the history of injury and 7 cases had no history of definite injury. The disease duration was from 10 months to 12 years (median, 5 years). The main cl inical symptoms were brevicoll is or torticoll is; 2 patients had malformation appearance and 4 patients had occi put-cervical pain. The physical examination showed that all patients had the symptoms that upper cervical cord was damaged; the imaging examination showed that all patients had basilar invagination, atlantoaxial dislocation, and ossification. Before and after operations, the functions of nerve were evaluated by Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scoring, the improvement rate was calculated to evaluate the efficacy. Results By the video output system assembly, 15.1 mill ion pixels high-definition images could be collected and reached 1 920 × 1 080 pixels video camera, so assistants or medical students could watch the cl inical operation directly. All patients had no neural injury or cerebrospinal fluid leakage during operation. Basilar invagination and atlantoaxial dislocation were corrected. Infection at incision occurred in 1 patient; other incisions healed by first intention without early compl ication. All patients were followed up 6-16 months (mean, 13.5 months). The average JOA score was increased from 10.2 preoperatively to 15.5 at 6 months postoperatively with an improvement rate of 77.9%. At 12 months after operation, bony fusions were achieved. Conclusion The miscroscope and video output system can improve the effectiveness of the original surgical microscope. It makes visual fields much clearer and operations more accuratewith a few compl ications.
