Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
5
Some Clinical Applications
Motion analysis carried out for clinical applications
requires a detailed description of the movements of a
particular individual, in order to understand the
mechanisms involved in the execution of a given task, the
degradation of these mechanisms during the onset or
progression of a disease, or even in order to objectively assess
the effects of a therapeutic treatment (surgery, medication or
rehabilitation protocol).
This chapter presents, by means of illustration, several
studies in which motion analysis systems have been used in
a clinical context: to characterize how infants walk, assess
functional movements of the upper limb, quantify the
mobility of the cervical spine or even detect changes in the
kinematics of the knee in patients suffering from arthritis.
In each case, the experimental protocol and the specifics for
the context of study are identified, so that the reader can
fully understand the difficulties in appropriately controlling
the use of this type of tools in a clinical context.
