Lower limb ankle exoskeletons have been used to improve walking efficiency and assist the elderly and patients with motor dysfunction in daily activities or rehabilitation training, while the assistance patterns may influence the wearer’s lower limb muscle activities and coordination patterns. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the effects of different ankle exoskeleton assistance patterns on wearer’s lower limb muscle activities and coordination patterns. A tethered ankle exoskeleton with nine assistance patterns that combined with differenet actuation timing values and torque magnitude levels was used to assist human walking. Lower limb muscle surface electromyography signals were collected from 7 participants walking on a treadmill at a speed of 1.25 m/s. Results showed that the soleus muscle activities were significantly reduced during assisted walking. In one assistance pattern with peak time in 49% of stride and peak torque at 0.7 N·m/kg, the soleus muscle activity was decreased by (38.5 ± 10.8)%. Compared with actuation timing, the assistance torque magnitude had a more significant influence on soleus muscle activity. In all assistance patterns, the eight lower limb muscle activities could be decomposed to five basic muscle synergies. The muscle synergies changed little under assistance with appropriate actuation timing and torque magnitude. Besides, co-contraction indexs of soleus and tibialis anterior, rectus femoris and semitendinosus under exoskeleton assistance were higher than normal walking. Our results are expected to help to understand how healthy wearers adjust their neuromuscular control mechanisms to adapt to different exoskeleton assistance patterns, and provide reference to select appropriate assistance to improve walking efficiency.
ObjectiveTo compare the similarities and differences in procedures between Western medicine (WM) and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) guidelines. MethodsWe systematically searched China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang Data, China Biology Medicine disc and PubMed from inception to May 17, 2022. Supplementary search of reputable medical institutions and organizations, as well as retrospective references were conducted and screened. We extracted and analyzed the basic information and guideline development procedure of the included handbooks. ResultsA total of 10 handbooks published from 2013 to 2022 were included, with four WM handbooks and six TCM handbooks. The median completeness of handbooks was 53.3%, with a maximum of 93.3% and a minimum of 43.3%. There are six handbooks with less than 60.0% completeness. The median reporting rate of the key steps was 65.0%, and the reporting rate of 5/8 of the key steps was more than 80.0%. Among the key reporting steps, role of funders, update methods, and conflict of interest management were reported at a low rate. Compared with WM handbooks, TCM handbooks reflected TCM characteristics in the procedure of topic selection, working groups, conflict of interest declaration and management, clinical questions, evidence, recommendations, report guideline, and external review. ConclusionThe completeness and reporting rate of the key steps need to be improved. TCM characteristics need to be further integrated when developing TCM guideline handbooks. We highly recommend that guideline stakeholders actively participate in handbook development to promote the quality of handbooks.
Technology in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which has a long history, provides excellent traditional culture and valuable spiritual wealth in China. TCM standardization technology will provide an important basis for guiding and evaluating the professional level and service quality of technicians in TCM. And it is also conducive to the sustainable development of TCM technology. However, at present, there is no relevant research on the development process of technical specifications for TCM. So, the urgent need is how to develop standardized technical specifications, and apply them to patients in practice. Therefore, this study first convened relevant experts, including TCM clinical experts, epidemiologists, methodology experts, etc., to form the core expert group, implementation group and quality assurance task group. According to the personnel functions, they are divided into technical specification steering committee, consensus expert group, secretariat group, external review group, evidence evaluation group, etc. Then, the initial entries are collected by systematically searching the current TCM technical guidelines, consensus and specifications and referring to the existing technical specifications. Finally, expert opinions were collected based on the Delphi survey, and the final reporting checklist of technical specifications for TCM was formed after consensus discussion. The study can provide evidence-based methodological guidance for the development of TCM technical specifications, and promote the standardization and internationalization of TCM technical specifications.