A wearable repeater relay system for interactive real-time wireless capsule endoscopy

Real-time wireless capsule endoscopy offers more flexibility and more precise screening options over commercially available passive endoscopy systems by allowing physicians to steer endoscopy capsules in real time. Yet, this requires reliable uninterrupted high frame-rate video streaming. In this contribution, we present a wearable repeater relay system that overcomes the impairments of the in-to-out body propagation channel and reliably relays implant data to a remote access point. The system consists of a set of wearable textile repeater nodes, exploiting receive diversity to provide a sufficiently large instantaneous carrier-to-noise ratio for live video streaming. Each wearable node, combining a dedicated receive antenna capturing the implant signal, an amplifier and an off-body transmit antenna, is fully implemented in textile materials, such that the comfort of the patient is not disturbed by the relay system. After outlining the design steps for the wearable relay node, in particular demonstrating stable robust antenna characteristics for the textile receive antenna oriented towards the body, we experimentally verify that a 6th-order diversity system provides the best compromise between user comfort and signal quality

Effect of rhythmic auditory cueing on gait in cerebral palsy: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Auditory entrainment can influence gait performance in movement disorders. The entrainment can incite neurophysiological and musculoskeletal changes to enhance motor execution. However, a consensus as to its effects based on gait in people with cerebral palsy is still warranted. A systematic review and meta-analysis were carried out to analyze the effects of rhythmic auditory cueing on spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters of gait in people with cerebral palsy. Systematic identification of published literature was performed adhering to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine guidelines, from inception until July 2017, on online databases: Web of Science, PEDro, EBSCO, Medline, Cochrane, Embase and ProQuest. Kinematic and spatiotemporal gait parameters were evaluated in a meta-analysis across studies. Of 547 records, nine studies involving 227 participants (108 children/119 adults) met our inclusion criteria. The qualitative review suggested beneficial effects of rhythmic auditory cueing on gait performance among all included studies. The meta-analysis revealed beneficial effects of rhythmic auditory cueing on gait dynamic index (Hedge’s g=0.9), gait velocity (1.1), cadence (0.3), and stride length (0.5). This review for the first time suggests a converging evidence toward application of rhythmic auditory cueing to enhance gait performance and stability in people with cerebral palsy. This article details underlying neurophysiological mechanisms and use of cueing as an efficient home-based intervention. It bridges gaps in the literature, and suggests translational approaches on how rhythmic auditory cueing can be incorporated in rehabilitation approaches to enhance gait performance in people with cerebral palsy