Effectiveness Analysis of Biomedical Dynamometers used to evaluate palmar gripping force and forceps gripping in Leprosy Carriers

Leprosy is a chronic and infectious disease, transmissible, which causes neural lesions in which its investigation is mandatory in Brazil because it causes decreased thermal sensitivity, touch and pain, but mainly causes loss of muscle strength in the feet and hands giving the disease a great disabling power. Therefore, this disease is of health concern and control policies have been concerned with early diagnosis and treatment of affected individuals, requiring objective, sensitive and reliable methods of measurement. Therefore, this research proposed to analyze the effectiveness of biomedical dynamometers in the measurement of handgrip strength and forceps grasping force in the hand of leprosy patients. In this context, a systematic literature review was performed considering publications in Portuguese and English from 1993 to 2019, due to the lack of qualitative research publications in recent years related to the measurement of the effects of leprosy. The results of the study showed that the dynamometers surveyed have the potential to be used as tools to measure effects and support the diagnosis of leprosy. These meters have important features such as non-invasive, easily reproduced and good accuracy, contributing to objective assessment and early diagnosis of the professional, favoring the treatment of affected patients. In addition, through this literature review, it is possible to observe the importance of handgrip strength measurement, because the delay in diagnosis and consequently in treatment generates severe physical disabilities in the hands, which are evident due to the radial, median and ulnar nerves generating limitation to perform activities and decreased work capacity

Biomedical Mechatronic Dynamometer to Support the Evaluation of the Effects of Leprosy Through the Palmar Holding Strenght and the Tweezer Holding Strenght

The hand can suffer the effects of several diseases among the most serious, leprosy stands out, which is considered infectious and can generate loss of muscle strength, atrophy, deformity and physical, mental and social disability. For the World Health Organization (WHO) and also doctors and physiotherapists, it is necessary to evaluate the diseases in an objective, reliable and early manner in order to propose appropriate treatment and follow their evolution. This research proposed a biomedical mechatronic dynamometer in order to support the evaluation of the effects of leprosy by means of palmar grip strength and grip strength of tweezers performed by hand. The experimental research was developed at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul and consisted first of all in the survey of the demands of the health area in relation to the biomedical dynamometer being consulted the following databases: Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (Medline); US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health (PUBMED) e Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The mechatronic biomedical dynamometer consisted of three fundamental parts: mechanical structure, electronic signal conditioning circuitry and digital information processing. The mechanical structure was designed to withstand a strenght of up to 700 N, developed in brass because this metal has low cost, has less mass and also because it is easier to machine than steel. The oval shape of the structure contains two lateral and thin regions that measure 2 cm thick, 3 cm wide each and aim to concentrate mechanical stresses in order to sensitize the strain sensor consisting of the four linear strain gages, model N2A-XX-S5262P-350/E4 and nominal resistance of 350 Ω, from the company Micro-Measurements, which showed accuracy of 98%. The mechanical structure also has a stainless-steel support that measures 1 cm thick and 3 cm wide located at the bottom and on which was glued a cushion to support the palm of the hand. This support can be replaced by other models that also contain a cushion that considers the presence of injuries or deformities in the hand. The mechanical structure also has a upper support that also measures 1 cm thick and 3 cm wide, to which four pressure sensors developed with rosette strain gages model N2K-XX-S5294R-350/DP/E4 with a nominal resistance of 350 Ω, from the company Micro-Measurements, were fixed and which showed an accuracy of 99.5%. The deformation sensor is stimulated by the application of palmar grip strenght while the pressure sensors are stimulated by the realization of index, middle, annular and minimum finger gripping strenght. In addition, these sensors are connected to Wheatstone Bridges whose feeds and also the responses are processed by five signal conditioning circuits developed with operational amplifiers LF 356, OPA 27 and OP27 GP of the company Burr-Brown, whose structure consists of voltage oscillator, amplifier, band pass filter, buffer and peak detector that generates DC voltage that feeds the data acquisition board. The answers on this board are sent to the Inspiron 15 3000 microcomputer from Dell, which has installed Labview software from National Instruments, which processes the information, stores, plotts the palmar grip strenght and pinch grip strenght graphs and can also send the information over the Internet. This research has the potential to obtain accurate information on the effects of leprosy in the hand that can support the evaluation, diagnosis of health professionals, follow up the evolution of the disease and the treatment adopted

Development of Biomedical Dynamometer for Measurement of Grip Strength in Mice Modeled with Cerebral Palsy

This research aimed to develop a biomedical dynamometer capable of measuring the grip strength of the forepaws of laboratory mices to verify the posterior phase, the effect of modeled cerebral palsy in the animal. The equipment was developed using a stainless steel blade, two double strain gages, a signal conditioning circuit that was connected to a software for acquisition, processing and plotting of graphs and tables in Excel. The metal blade has a length of 18.5 cm, a width of 1.5 cm and a thickness of 2 mm and a double strain gage model pa-09-125ha-350-l8 from Excel Sensors (Brazil), was glued to each face. The two double strain gages were connected in a Wheatstone bridge, which produces an analog response due to mechanical deformation of the blade, with force applied by the mice. This response was submitted to a signal conditioning circuit developed with Arduino that modulated the input wave, generated 10000 times amplification and performed filtering 4th order using Butterworth filter. Finally, a software developed in Labview 2019 of National Instruments (USA) was used for acquisition, processing and plotting of graphs and tables in Excel of the measurements performed. In the next step, the dynamometer was calibrated for sequential loading of masses of 0, 15.48 g, 31.53 g, 46.88 g to 62.47 g and also for sequential unloading of the same masses. For this, the masses were hung on a nylon string that was attached to the free end of the metal sheet. The final test was to measure the response time of the dynamometer with a stopwatch, when hanging a mass of 62.47 g on the nylon thread that was cut abruptly with scissors. Some of the main results of the calibration were as follows: 15.48 g generated 3.70 V, 31.53 g generated 7.48 V and 62.47 g gene rated 14.80 V and the response time was 0.3 s. These answers show that the dynamometer can be used to measure the grip strength of mice and can be modified for use in humans

Experimental Models in Rheumatoid Arthritis:: A Systematic Review using the IRAMUTEQ software

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune and chronic pathological condition characterized by an inflammatory process of the joints It is a complex and multifactorial, involving genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors and the use of experimental models is required to better understand its pathology and for drug testing. The aim of this study was to perform a systematic literature review on experimental models in rheumatoid arthritis using IRAMUTEQ, a software that analysis, qualitatively and quantitatively, text fragments, as a methodological tool. After searching for articles published in the last five years on Scopus database and applying the exclusion criteria, we ended with 84 articles. The most commonly employed experimental models was the arthritis induction by inoculation of the Complete Freund\u27s Adjuvant (CFA), followed by the use of combined methodologies and the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). The analyses of abstracts by the IRAMUTEQ software provided a classification according to their textual elements in four classes, which were grouped into three main themes: in vivo models (class 1), clinical practice and traditional medicine (classes 2 and 3) and in vitro models (class 4) and it was also possible to build a similarity tree of the terms present in the abstracts and a word cloud with the most cited terms. Thus, the use of the IRAMUTEQ software as a methodological tool has been satisfactory, since it was possible to identify the main experimental models used, keywords, pathological processes and molecules involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis free of the researchers’ bias, in addition to being a tool for visual and intuitive results