A Novel Assessment of Flexibility by Microcirculatory Signals

Sensors

Jian-Guo Bau²  Taipau Chia¹  Yu-Fang Chung³  Kun-Hao Chen³ 

[1] Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, Hungkuang University, No. 1018, Sec. 6, Taiwan Boulevard, Taichung City 43302, Taiwan; E-Mail:;Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hungkuang University, No. 1018, Sec. 6, Taiwan Boulevard, Taichung City 43302, Taiwan; E-Mail:;Department of Electrical Engineering, Tunghai University, No. 1727 Sec. 4, Taiwan Boulevard, Taichung City 40704, Taiwan; E-Mails:

关键词: flexibility;    Laser-Doppler Flowmetry;    stretching;    chronic venous insufficiency;    gastrocnemius muscle;    perfusion;    pulsatile;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s140100478

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Flexibility testing is one of the most important fitness assessments. It is generally evaluated by measuring the range of motion (RoM) of body segments around a joint center. This study presents a novel assessment of flexibility in the microcirculatory aspect. Eighteen college students were recruited for the flexibility assessment. The flexibility of the leg was defined according to the angle of active ankle dorsiflexion measured by goniometry. Six legs were excluded, and the remaining thirty legs were categorized into two groups, group H (n = 15 with higher flexibility) and group L (n = 15 with lower flexibility), according to their RoM. The microcirculatory signals of the gastrocnemius muscle on the belly were monitored by using Laser-Doppler Flowmetry (LDF) with a noninvasive skin probe. Three indices of nonpulsatile component (DC), pulsatile component (AC) and perfusion pulsatility (PP) were defined from the LDF signals after signal processing. The results revealed that both the DC and AC values of the group H that demonstrated higher stability underwent muscle stretching. In contrast, these indices of group L had interferences and became unstable during muscle stretching. The PP value of group H was a little higher than that of group L. These primary findings help us to understand the microcirculatory physiology of flexibility, and warrant further investigations for use of non-invasive LDF techniques in the assessment of flexibility.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.