标题： 一种用于评估肌腱健康和负荷条件的新型声学可穿戴设备 显示英文标题

标题： A Novel Acoustic Wearable for Assessment of Tendon Health and Loading Condition

摘要： 目前评估肌腱健康状况的方法，如临床检查、成像技术和植入式压力传感器，通常基于主观评估，或者不够准确，或者非常昂贵，或者仅限于较大的损伤（如部分撕裂或完全撕裂），无法准确评估和监测较小的损伤（如微小撕裂或拉伤）。 本研究提出了一种基于声学的可穿戴设备，能够估计深部和浅表肌腱的负荷，并预测损伤的严重程度。 我们的设备由一组声波换能器组成，以袖带的形式定位在目标身体区域周围。 其中一个换能器产生声波，该声波能够深入穿透人体。 当这些声波通过不同的组织时，它们受到每种组织的机械和几何特性的影响。 其余的换能器用于测量传播的声波。 结果显示，所提出的可穿戴设备通过提高覆盖范围，为现有的浅表肌腱监测可穿戴设备提供了一个有前景的替代方案。 所提出的可穿戴设备在估计作用于肌腱上的力方面表现出稳健的性能。 它还可以有效地用于比较两条肌腱的健康状况并预测损伤类型。 显示英文摘要

摘要： The current methods of assessing tendon health such as clinical examination, imaging techniques, and implanted pressure sensors, are often based on a subjective assessment or are not accurate enough, are extremely expensive, or are limited to relatively large damage such as partial or gross tear of the tendon and cannot accurately assess and monitor smaller damages such as micro tears or strains. This study proposes an acoustic-based wearable capable of estimating tendon load and predicting damage severity in both deep and superficial tendons. Our device consists of an array of acoustic transducers positioned around the targeted body area in the form of a cuff. One of the transducers generates an acoustic wave, which is capable of penetrating deep into the body. As these waves propagate through different tissues, they are influenced by the mechanical and geometrical properties of each tissue. The rest of the transducers are used to measure the propagated waves. The results suggest that the proposed wearable offers a promising alternative to existing superficial tendon monitoring wearable devices by improving the domain of reach. The proposed wearable shows robust performance in estimating the force applied to the tendon. It also can effectively be used to compare the health condition of two tendons and predict the type of damage.