Muscle atrophy can happen for a variety of reasons, but is typically a side effect of degenerative disease, ageing or muscle disuse.
MRI is often used to assess whether a patient’s muscle size and volume have deteriorated, but frequent testing can be time-consuming and costly.
A new study published in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering suggests that an electromagnetic sensor made out of conductive e-threads could be used as an alternative to frequent MRI monitoring.
To validate their work, researchers fabricated 3D-printed limb moulds and filled them with ground beef to simulate the calf tissue of an average-sized person. Their findings showed that they were able to demonstrate the sensor could measure small-scale volume changes in overall limb size, and monitor muscle loss of up to 51 per cent.
“Ideally, our proposed sensor could be used by health care providers to more personally implement treatment plans for patients and to create less of a burden on the patient themselves,” said Allyanna Rice, lead author of the study and a graduate fellow in electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State.
The study is said to build on Rice’s previous work in creating health sensors for NASA, which supported the research. NASA is interested in monitoring the health of astronauts in a variety of ways because spending large amounts of time in space can have detrimental effects on the human body.
Scientists know that crew members on short spaceflights can experience up to a 20 per cent loss in muscle mass and bone density, but there isn’t much data on what effect living in space for much longer missions could have on their bodies.
“Our sensor is something that an astronaut on a long mission or a patient at home could use to keep track of their health without the help of a medical professional,” Rice said in a statement.
Rice and her co-author Asiminia Kiourti, a professor in electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State, designed the device to work by employing two coils – a transmitter and a receiver - plus a conductor made out of e-threads that run along the fabric in a zig-zag pattern.
“When we first proposed the sensor, we didn’t realise that we would need a stretchable material until we realised that the person’s limbs were going to be changing,” she said. “We need a sensor that can change and flex, but it also needs to be conformal.”
After some trial and error, they found that while sewing in a straight line would limit the sleeve’s elasticity, a zig-zag pattern was ideal for amplifying it. This same novel pattern is the reason the sensor may be scalable across multiple different body parts or even several locations on the same limb.
The wearable is ‘years away from implementation’, but the study noted that the next significant advance would most likely be to connect the device to a mobile app to record and deliver health information directly to healthcare providers.
To improve life for future patients on Earth and in space, Rice is looking forward to combining the sensor with other kinds of devices for detecting and monitoring health issues, such as a tool for detecting bone loss.
“In the future, we would like to integrate more sensors and even more capabilities with our wearable,” Rice said.
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