• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.7 s.184
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• pp.152-158
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• 2006

The objective of this work is to develop the knee joint model for representing various pendulum motions and quantifying the spasticity. Knee joint model included the extension and flexion muscles. The joint moment consists of both the active moment from the stretch reflex and the passive moment from the viscoelastic joint properties. The stretch reflex was modeled as nonlinear feedback of muscle length and the muscle lengthening velocity, which is Physiologically-feasible. Moreover, we modeled the spastic reflex as having dynamic threshold to account far the various pendulum trajectories of spastic patients. We determined the model parameters of three patients who showed different pendulum trajectories through minimization of error between experimental and simulated trajectories. The simulated joint trajectories closely matched with the experimental ones, which show the proposed model can predict pendulum motions of patients with different spastic severities. The predicted muscle force from spastic reflex appeared more frequently in the severe spastic patient, which indicates the dynamic threshold relaxes slowly in this patient as is manifested by the variation coefficient of dynamic threshold. The proposed method provides prediction of muscle force and intuitive and objective evaluation of spasticity and it is expected to be useful in quantitative assessment of spasticity.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.215-221
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• 2015

The elbow reflex, a principal reflex in the upper extremity, plays an important role in the diagnosis of cervical spine syndromes. In this study, the muscle activations of brachial biceps and triceps, and the kinematics of upper extremities were predicted using an activation model for the stretch reflex. The muscle activations that equated the simulation results estimated by the analysis model with the experimental results were obtained first, and the activations obtained from the simulations were compared with the electromyography signals obtained from the experiments, for model validation. The root mean squares error of the joint angles (obtained from experiments and simulation using the suggested model) was 0.056, a value that is half of that obtained using the previous model. This demonstrates that the suggested model corresponded well with the actual reflex.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.04a
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• pp.728-729
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• 2014

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.142-149
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to identify both the mechanical and reflex properties associated with spasticity in hemiplegic patients. Ten hemiplegic patients were included in this study. Multiple pendulum tests were executed for each subject, and knee joint angle and EMG of Rectus Femoris muscle were measured. The neuromusculoskeletal system model was developed from generally accepted mechanism and identified through minimization of the error in the model-predicted pendulum trajectories. The identification was successful in terms of small error in simulated kinematics and high sensitivity and precision of simulated torque against EMG activity. The reflex threshold showed significant difference between different clinical scores (p<0.01) and significant negative correlation (r=-0.93) with the EMG duration. It is expected that the suggested method may help in understanding mechanisms underlying spasticity.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.11 s.176
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• pp.24-29
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• 2005