Stairs and curbs often present as an exhausting environmental barrier for individuals with bilateral cerebral palsy (CP) due to their lower limb motor impairments. Indeed, performance in stair-climbing in this population has a higher correlation with disruption of mobility than walking. Community members affected by CP consider impaired mobility a...
Ankle sprains are the most common musculoskeletal injury. After an ankle sprain, about 40% of individuals develop Chronic Ankle Instability (CAI), resulting in recurrent sprains, the ankle giving way, or feelings of instability. Most sprains occur due to excess inversion of the ankle. Frontal-plane ankle stiffness quantifies the ankle’s ability...
The esophagus plays a crucial role in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and esophageal disorders are associated with reduced quality of life. Several studies have reported that there is a high worldwide prevalence of esophageal disorders. Esophageal disorders are related to the mechanical properties and function of the esophageal...
Shoulder (glenohumeral joint) osteoarthritis causes pain, limits daily activities, and frequently requires joint replacement surgery. In shoulder osteoarthritis, the glenoid bone surface erodes in one of two ways: symmetrically (concentric deformity) or asymmetrically (eccentric deformity). Shoulder replacements in patients with eccentric deformities fail and require additional, revision surgery more often...
Predicting pediatric spinal deformity (PSD) from X-ray images collected on the patient's initial visit is a challenging task. This research provides a bio-informed framework based on a mechanistic machine learning technique with dynamic patient-specific (PS) parameters to predict PSD. We provide a geometry-based bone growth model that can be utilized...
A major distinction among different skeletal muscles in the human body is the number, size, and arrangement of its cells, referred to as a muscle’s architecture. Muscle architecture is indicative of a muscle’s ability to contract and produce force and, like muscle function, is plastic. While neuromuscular plasticity is the...
Humans have a remarkable ability to create stable walking patterns that can resist and recover from perturbations. Unfortunately, this ability is substantially impaired after a stroke, limiting mobility and contributing to a high fall rate. To facilitate gait training during post-stroke rehabilitation, clinicians often incorporate body-weight support (BWS) systems that...
Normal gastroesophageal motilty is important to live a comfortable and healthy life. Motility disorders result in impaired transport of ingested food which can lead to extreme discomfort and severe damage to the walls of the esophagus. Significant work has been done to study gastroesophageal motility using advanced diagnostic tools such...
The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the human body, allowing for the execution of complex and athletic tasks. Unfortunately, such expansive mobility comes at a cost. The shoulder is prone to instability, or painful symptoms associated with increased humeral head translation, and dislocation. To prevent dislocations and maintain...
Muscle strength assessment is a standard part of any clinical evaluation. Due to the kinematic and muscular redundancy in the human musculoskeletal system, muscle strength can not be measured directly in vivo. Clinicians utilize specific postures and forces to bias the muscles of interest, then infer the muscle strength from...