Personalised Modeling and Simulation Procedures for the Differential Diagnosis of Dynapenia: a Study on Healthy Volunteers

Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli

Status

Completed

Conditions

Healthy

Treatments

Diagnostic Test: Personalised musculoskeletal modeling

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT05091502

ForceLoss I

Details and patient eligibility

About

The ForceLoss study aims to develop personalised modeling and simulation procedures to enable the differential diagnosis for the loss of muscle force, namely dynapenia. Dynapenia can be caused by diffuse or selective sarcopenia, lack of activation, or improper motor control. Each of these causes requires different interventions, but a reliable differential diagnosis is currently impossible. While instrumental methods can provide information on each of these possible causes, it is left to the experience of the single clinician to integrate such information into a complete diagnostic picture. But an accurate diagnosis for dynapenia is important in a number of pathologies, including neurological diseases, age-related frailty, diabetes, and orthopaedic conditions. The hypothesis is that the use of a mechanistic, subject-specific model of maximum isometric knee extension, informed by a number of instrumental information can provide a robust differential diagnosis of dynapenia.

In this preliminary study, on healthy volunteers, the investigators will develop and optimize (i) the experimental protocol and (ii) the modeling and simulation framework, assessing both feasibility and reliability of the proposed procedures. Medical imaging, electromyography (EMG) and dynamometry data will be collected and combined to inform a personalised musculoskeletal model of each participant. Biomechanical computer simulations of a Maximal Voluntary Isometric Contraction (MVIC) task will then be performed. To validate the proposed approach, the models' estimates will be compared to in vivo dynamometry measurements and experimental EMG data.

Enrollment

20 patients

Sex

All

Ages

20 to 40 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Body mass index (BMI) between 15 and 30 kg / m²

Exclusion criteria

Neurological, rheumatic or tumoral diseases;
Pathologies or physical conditions incompatible with the use of magnetic resonance imaging and electrostimulation (i.e., active and passive implanted biomedical devices, epilepsy, severe venous insufficiency in the lower limbs, pregnancy);
Previous interventions or traumas to the joints of the lower limb.