TITLE:
Connective Tissue Energy Loss Comparison between Joints with and without Hypermobility
AUTHORS:
Stephen A. Tatarkov, Angela C. Tesny, Brittany M. Lauck, Louis A. DiBerardino III, Hui Shen
KEYWORDS:
Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, Soft Connective Tissues, Electromyography, Kelvin-Voigt Model
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering,
Vol.10 No.5B,
May
10,
2017
ABSTRACT: Joint hypermobility syndrome is a condition in which a joint can move effortlessly beyond the normal limit of motion expected for that joint. This syndrome is affected by some factors including gender and tends to be inherited. It may cause some symptoms such as pain in an individual’s synovial joints. The objective of the current study was to compare the energy loss of connective tissues between joints with and without hypermobility. A differential equation model, namely the Kelvin-Voigt model, was used for the energy loss analysis. The results show the difference in energy loss for the tissues attached to joints with and without joint hypermobility. As the stiffness of the connective tissue decreases, the energy loss increases. Muscle activity about the ankle was measured via electromyography during simple functional tasks, and the recorded data were used to correlate with the theoretical analysis of the energy loss. The result would shed light on the pathology analysis of the symptoms such as the cause of pain.