Earticle

One of the most popular types of personal health device is the activity monitor, which is attached to the user’s wrist or waist in order to measure physical activity data such as exercise time/duration and calorie consumption. Given that it has an activity sensor and a gyro sensor to measure the speed of a user’s movement, an activity monitor can also be used to track the movement of sporting equipment. The accelerator sensor in the activity monitor used for this study can measure up to a certain level. When the activity monitor is attached to a body part or slow-moving sporting equipment, the limit of the certain level is considered to be enough to measure the activity data. However, the peak acceleration of fast-moving sporting equipment may exceed the certain level. In this paper, in order to overcome the limitations of the sensor, the peak acceleration of the fast-moving sporting equipment is estimated using the interpolation method based on the acceleration values of the rest of the movement. Furthermore, it also describes how to calculate a swing surface.

Purpose: Limited means exist to assess gastrointestinal activity in pediatric patients postoperatively. Recently, myoelectric gastrointestinal activity recorded by cutaneous patches has been shown in adult patients to be predictive of clinical return of gastrointestinal function postoperatively. The aim of this case series is to demonstrate the feasibility of this system in pediatric patients and to correlate myoelectric signals with return of bowel function clinically. Methods: Pediatric patients undergoing abdominal surgery were recruited to have wireless patches placed on the abdomen within two hours postoperatively. Myoelectric data were transmitted wirelessly to a mobile device with a user-interface and forwarded to a cloud server where processing algorithms identified episodes of motor activity, quantified their parameters and nominally assigned them to specific gastrointestinal organs based on their frequencies. Results: Three patients (ages 5 months, 4 year, 16 year) were recruited for this study. Multiple patches were placed on the older subjects, while the youngest had a single patch due to space limitations. Rhythmic signals of the stomach, small intestine, and colon could be identified in all three subjects. Patients showed gradual increase in myoelectric intestinal and colonic activity leading up to the first recorded bowel movement. Conclusion: Measuring myoelectric intestinal activity continuously using a wireless patch system is feasible in a wide age range of pediatric patients. The increase in activity over time correlated well with the patients' return of bowel function. More studies are planned to determine if this technology can predict return of bowel function or differentiate between physiologic ileus and pathologic conditions.

Catalase (CAT) decomposes hydrogen peroxide that is toxic to the body. In this study, simple and sensitive detector has been developed for observing catalase activity using liquid crystal droplet system. Microscale LC droplet patterns are formed by spreading aldehyde-doped nematic liquid crystal on pre-treated glass slides. When hydrogen peroxide is added, aldehyde is oxidized and amphiphiles are formed. Dodecanoates cause the pattern to transit from bright to dark as they self-assemble to form a carboxyalte monolayer at the interface. When a drop of pre-incubated CAT and hydrogen peroxide mixture is placed onto the pattern, bright fan-shape is observed. This planar optical appearance indicates that catalase has decomposed hydrogen peroxide. Compared to the detectors that have been previously developed, this system is more sensitive with detection limit of 1fM. This research suggests further studies to be on LC droplet patterning to develop highly sensitive and methodologically simple sensors for various chemicals.

Background: Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) are included in the group of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) caused by systemic inflammation; however, indicators for monitoring inflammatory activity in patients with psoriasis, such as the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), are limited. Objective: To determine whether the Psoriatic Arthritis Screening and Evaluation (PASE) questionnaire can be used to monitor disease activity in patients with psoriasis. Methods: This was a multicenter, noninterventional, cross-sectional study. Demographic factors and PASI and PASE scores were collected to investigate associations between each. Results: PASE data were available for 1,255 patients, of whom 498 (39.7%) had a score of ≥37. Compared with the group with PASE score ＜37, the group with score ≥37 had a higher proportion of women (34.9% vs. 48.8%, p＜0.0001), older mean age at diagnosis (36.4 vs. 41.7 years, p＜0.0001), more severe disease activity using PASI and body surface area measures (p=0.0021 and p=0.0008, respectively), and higher mean body mass index (23.7 vs. 24.1, p=0.0411). In a multiple linear regression model, PASE score was positively associated with cutaneous disease activity (p＜0.0001). Conclusion: After risk-adjustment, PASE was positively associated with PASI, which suggests that PASE can be sensitive to disease activity. Since psoriasis is regarded as one of the IMIDs, PASE may be utilized as a tool not only to screen PsA but also to monitor disease activity.

오늘날 인간의 수명이 연장되고, 웰빙과 건강에 대한 관심이 증가됨에 따라서 언제 어디서나 건강을 모니터링 할 수 있는 건강 스마트 의류 시스템이 개발되고 있다. 이를 위하여 최근에는 생체신호의 모니터링이 가능하도록 디자인된 의류에 통합된 형태의 직물 전극이 개발되고 있다. 혁신적으로 의류 시스템에 통합되어 착용 가능한 니트, 우븐, 자수방식의 텍스타일 전극에 대한 다양한 연구가 개발 제시되고 있으며, 이의 일부는 상용화되어 있다. 이에 본 연구는 경위사의 일정한 직조제어 자동화 시스템이 가능한 컴퓨터 자카드 직기의 캐드(CAD) 직조디자인 방식을 통하여 생체신호 센싱 기능이 향상된 새로운 텍스타일 전극디자인을 연구하고자 하였다. 이를 위하여 본 연구에서는 기존 생체신호 센싱 전극의 개발 및 연구 동향, 비직물/전극 타입에 대한 단점과 장점에 대한 비교 분석을 이론적으로 살펴보고, 자카드 직조 직물 기반으로 심전도 센싱용 텍스타일 전극을 디자인하여 실험 연구하였다. 자카드 직조 방식의 심전도 센싱용 직물 전극은 전극 인터페이스 디자인 방식, 이중직물형 직조 디자인 방식, 사가공 등의 요인들을 고려하여 개발하였다. 본 연구에서 도출된 최종 자카드 직조 직물 기반의 텍스타일 전극은 스마트 의류에 통합시킨 텍스타일 전극 모듈로서 적용되여 향후 상용화 방안을 모색할 수 있다.