Electromyography of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Ear Muscles in Healthy Probands and Patients with Unilateral Postparalytic Facial Synkinesis

There are currently no data on the electromyography (EMG) of all intrinsic and extrinsic ear muscles. The aim of this work was to develop a standardized protocol for a reliable surface EMG examination of all nine ear muscles in twelve healthy participants. The protocol was then applied in seven patients with unilateral postparalytic facial synkinesis. Based on anatomic preparations of all ear muscles on two cadavers, hot spots for the needle EMG of each individual muscle were defined. Needle and surface EMG were performed in one healthy participant; facial movements could be defined for the reliable activation of individual ear muscles’ surface EMG. In healthy participants, most tasks led to the activation of several ear muscles without any side difference. The greatest EMG activity was seen when smiling. Ipsilateral and contralateral gaze were the only movements resulting in very distinct activation of the transversus auriculae and obliquus auriculae muscles. In patients with facial synkinesis, ear muscles’ EMG activation was stronger on the postparalytic compared to the contralateral side for most tasks. Additionally, synkinetic activation was verifiable in the ear muscles. The surface EMG of all ear muscles is reliably feasible during distinct facial tasks, and ear muscle EMG enriches facial electrodiagnostics.

Spatial and Temporal Electrodynamics in Acuzones: Test-Induced Kinematics and Synchronous Structuring. Phenomenological Study

Background: So far there is no confidence in the basics of acupoint/meridian phenomena, specifically in spatial and temporal electrical manifestations in the skin.Methods: Using the skin electrodynamic introscopy, the skin areas of 32 × 64 mm2 were monitored for spectral electrical impedance landscape with spatial resolution of 1 mm, at 2 kHz and 1 MHz frequencies. The detailed baseline and 2D test-induced 2 kHz-impedance phase dynamics and the 4-parameter time plots of dozens of individual points in the St32-34 regions were examined in a healthy participant and a patient with mild gastritis. Non-thermal stimuli were used: (1) (for the sick subject), microwaves and ultraviolet radiation applied alternately from opposite directions of the meridian; and (2) (for the healthy one) microwaves to St17, and cathodic/anodic stimulation of the outermost St45, alternately.Results: In both cases, the following phenomena have been observed: emergence of in-phase and/or antiphase coherent structures, exceeding the acupoint conditional size of 1 cm; collective movement along the meridian; reversible with a reversed stimulus; counter-directional dynamics of both whole structures and adjacent points; local abnormalities in sensitivity and dynamics of the 1 MHz and 2 kHz parameters indicating existence of different waveguide paths.Conclusion: It is assumed that these findings necessitate reconsideration of some basic methodological issues regarding neurogenic/acupuncture points as spatial and temporal phenomena; this requires development of an appropriate approach for identifying the acuzones patterns. These findings may be used for developing new approaches to personalized/controlled therapy/treatment.

Can alternative anatomical sites and environmental surveillance replace perianal screening for multidrug-resistant organisms in nursing homes?

Perianal screening can be intrusive. The sensitivities of multianatomical, nonperianal surveillance were 92.3% for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), 58.7% for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and 54.9% for resistant Gram-negative bacilli (R-GNB). Sensitivities improved upon adding environmental surveillance (95.5%, 82.9%, and 67.9%, respectively). Multianatomical, nonperianal screening and room environment surveillance may replace perianal screening and reduce healthy participant bias in nursing homes.

Inductive Textile Sensor Design and Validation for a Wearable Monitoring Device

Textile sensors have gained attention for wearable devices, in which the most popular are the resistive textile sensor. However, these sensors present high hysteresis and a drift when stretched for long periods of time. Inductive textile sensors have been commonly used as antennas and plethysmographs, and their applications have been extended to measure heartbeat, wireless data transmission, and motion and gesture capturing systems. Inductive textile sensors have shown high reliability, stable readings, low production cost, and an easy manufacturing process. This paper presents the design and validation of an inductive strain textile sensor. The anthropometric dimensions of a healthy participant were used to define the maximum dimensions of the inductive textile sensor. The design of the inductive sensor was studied through theoretical calculations and simulations. Parameters such as height, width, area, perimeter, and number of complete loops were considered to calculate and evaluate the inductance value.

3D Reaching Movements Prediction of Upper-limb Joints Based on Deep Neural Networks

BackgroundThe reaching test is widely adapted in motor function assessment of stroke rehabilitation. To evaluate the motor disorder quantitatively, it is important to measure the differences between reaching movements made by healthy people and patients. Thus a movement prediction model should be firstly established on healthy people as a customized benchmark. MethodsWe designed a simplified kinematic model for human upper limbs in which seven main joints of both the dominant and non-dominant side were extracted. With this model, the reaching movement data was collected from a healthy participant. A deep neural network (DNN) was trained with this dataset. Then, the DNN was utilized for predicting 3D movements of upper limb joints of a healthy participant. ResultsThe prediction trajectories of dominant side were high similar to the trajectories of real movements with the coupling distance around 60 mm, 50 mm, 30 mm, 30 mm, 20mm for hand, elbow, shoulder, 7th cervical vertebra and 8th thoracic vertebra. The result of non-dominant side were less accurate than dominant side but still was with relatively short coupling distance. ConclusionsThe DNN model could achieve the promising accuracy in 3D movements estimation of upper limb. With good capabilities of identifying specific reaching movements in dynamic processing, a customized benchmark established by data-driven methods could be utilized to inform the rehabilitation assessment and training in the future studies.

P777 Effects of chronic cigarette smoking on left ventricle, left atrium and right ventricle strain parameters with 2D speckle tracking echocardiography

Funding Acknowledgements None Background Cigarette smoking effects myocardium with several mechanisms such as sympathetic nervous system activation, oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction. Chronic smokers have an increased risk of morbidity and mortality associated with adverse cardiac events. Echocardiography is the well-established non-invasive diagnostic tool for the assessment of cardiac systolic and diastolic functions. 2D speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) has been widely used for this purpose in recent years. Purpose The aim of this study is to compare the left ventricle, left atrium and right ventricle systolic functions with 2D speckle tracking echocardiography in chronic smokers and non-smoker healthy population. Method 40 healthy participant (mean age 33.4 ± 10.0) without smoking history, 42 healthy participant (mean age 33.9 ± 9.2) who had smoking history at least 3 years without history of cardiac disease or any other chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, kidney failure were prospectively included. In addition to Standard 2D echocardiographic measurements, left ventricular global longitidunal strain (LvGLS), right ventricular global longitidunal strain (RvGLS), left atrial strain and strain rate were analyzed with Vivid E9, offline using a customized software package. Results Smokers had lower peak early diastolic velocity (E) and E/A (late diastolic velocity) ratio in mitral inflow (0.70 ± 0.13 vs 0.77 ± 0.13, p = 0.023; 1.47 ± 0.44 vs 1.73 ± 0.44, p = 0.011; respectively). Peak early diastolic velocity of mitral valve medial annulus and E’/A’ ratio (0.11 ± 0.02 vs 0.12 ± 0.02, p = 0.023; 1.20 ± 0.37 vs 1.40 ± 0.46, p = 0.039; respectively) was lower in smokers. LvGLS and RvGLS were significantly impaired in smokers (-17.65 ± 3.01 vs -19.21 ± 2.52, p = 0.013; -18.96 ± 4.47 vs -21.06 ± 4.58, p = 0.039; respectively). Although εs, reservoir phase strain of left atrium; εe, conduit phase strain of left atrium; εa, contractile phase strain of left atrium were similar between two groups, εe/εa was significantly lower in smokers than non-smokers (1.32 ± 0.59, 1.63 ± 0.63, p = 0.026). Conclusion Impaired RV deformation was found in chronic cigarette smokers. Besides standardized diastolic dysfunction parameters εe/εa might be used for the early indicator of diastolic dysfunction. Although there was no statistically significant difference with left ventricular ejection fraction between smokers and non-smokers, LvGLS which is the early indicator of LV systolic dysfunction in chronic smokers might be used for the early assesment of LV systolic impairment. Abstract P777 figure 1