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Research Updates Lab meeting- 08/30

A discussion around the selection of investigating stroke-related drop foot over cerebral palsy, with insights into completed milestones and proposed studies. Includes a focus on utilizing OpenSim, defining research objectives, and reviewing literature to frame the project. Accomplishments highlighted through data insights and considerations for future tasks.

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Research Updates Lab meeting- 08/30

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  1. Research UpdatesLab meeting- 08/30 Ashley Rice

  2. Accomplishments since last time What I did Why it’s important Helps to define the direction of the project Drop foot is a condition that has multiple causes, and the two we were stuck between were cerebral palsy and stroke. Turns out the numbers are much higher for stroke, so this is the one we choose to investigate Now I see why OpenSim is an integral part of the research, and it makes it less intimidating to learn how some of the software works. Both had 3 very clear studies in their dissertation written clearly with “Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussions.” Both were very useful in beginning to visualize my own project and where to start. • Completed mini proposal first draft • Motivation (Why study this?) • Literature review (Who has already done what?) • Possible studies to conduct (What am I going to do, and why is it different?) • Found some concrete numbers (more on this later) about people with post-stroke drop foot • Completed OpenSim tutorials and some online examples • Reviewed Saryn Goldberg’s and Melanie Fox’s dissertations to get some ideas for studies

  3. More on accomplishments… • Some numbers • Drop foot results from weakened muscle tone. Drop foot in CP patients is more generally referred to as equinus. Still a lot of problems with dorsiflexion in the ankle causing their foot to drag, but may also come with other complications such as hyperextension of the knee, severely bent toes, etc. • At worst, 4/1000 children are diagnosed annually with CP. With approx. 4 million children born each year, this leads to a rough estimate that about 9,600 will have equinus. • Approx. 795,000 strokes are reported each year (U.S.), and about 75% of them partially recover (~ 600,000). 20% of the partial recoveries are estimated to have a post-stroke drop foot (~ 120,000). • Note: the incidence of drop foot is higher for CP (approx. 60%) than for stroke (approx. 15%), but stroke is much more common than CP.

  4. More on accomplishments… • Possible three studies: Ideas mostly from Saryn and Melanie’s dissertations- • How important are the initial conditions to preventing drop foot? What is the minimum ankle angle needed to prevent gait disturbances? Does the angle need to be the same in both ankles, or as long as it’s above a a minimum value will that suffice? • What are the muscle contributions, and can we separate this from the AFO contributions? It has been shown that the medial gastrocnemius activity increased with a decrease in AFO stiffness only for individuals who were lower limb amputees. For subjects with complete lower limbs, the knee joint moment extensor activity increased with a decrease in AFO stiffness. Apparently the compensatory mechanisms vary, so can find a way to determine what the mechanisms are? • Zelik stuff…augmentation power increase with increase surface area of device?

  5. Video • Drop foot and steppage gait

  6. goAls • I should probably learn the basics of C++ since I’ve never used it and it seems important for OpenSim. • Complete online course in C++ (09/08) • Firmly decide on at least the first study and design clear methods • Initial conditions and ankle angle? • I think this will be important following the C++ stuff. Maybe then I should try implement something in OpenSim to see about finding the minimum angle, and its relation to the unaffected limb (do the angles have to be the same?) (09/15) • Learn the appropriate vocabulary • Start with the lower limbs • Muscles, bones, orientation words • Find some online sources and review… (09/08)

  7. Ongoing tasks • Literature review • Project decisions and planning first study • C++ training • OpenSim training • Vocabulary

  8. Issues and proposed solutions • I feel like there are almost too many directions this project could go, and that makes it difficult to find the “most important” one. • I think it helps to look specifically at the numbers. This shows the shear volume of people that are affected and the resultant issues they have. • I don’t have any experience in modeling, and I’m not even sure what that entails entirely or how it’s different than simulation. That makes it a bit difficult to think about how to conduct a study using modeling and simulation, as I’m unclear about what it involves. • Using OpenSim has helped clear up some of it. I see now that it wouldn’t be that difficult to modify a model, but I need to continue using the software the keep learning. • This is the first time I’ll be working on a single project that spans more than a few months, so I don’t know yet about what to expect in terms of efficient deadlines and how to be best productive. • I try to force myself to set deadlines, even though they may be too ambitious. It keeps me on top of my work.

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