Actively Recruiting
Voluntary Activation During Isokinetic Contractions in Subjects with Neuromotor Disorders
Led by Istituto Auxologico Italiano · Updated on 2024-10-24
20
Participants Needed
1
Research Sites
220 weeks
Total Duration
On this page
AI-Summary
What this Trial Is About
Activation is the amount of voluntary recruitment of a muscle during voluntary contraction. Full activation implies the recruitment of all muscle fibres at their tetanic frequency. In healthy subjects, and even in sports performances, full activation may be rarely achieved despite a subjectively maximal effort. Highly decreased activation has been observed in patients affected by various orthopaedic and neurological disorders. In these subjects, paresis may be caused or aggravated by primitive impairments of the central nervous system and/or, by stimuli arising from peripheral damaged tissues that inhibit the corticospinal or the intraspinal recruitment of motoneurones ("arthrogenous muscle weakness"). There are numerous investigations in the literature on activation measured during isometric contractions, while they are substantially missing as far as isokinetic concentric contractions are concerned. There are reasons to suppose that, contrary to what has been demonstrated for healthy subjects, in patients with various motor impairments the activation is diminished the more, the higher is the joint rotation speed. The present study aims to investigate the amount of activation of the quadriceps femoris during subjectively maximal isometric contractions at 40° knee flexion (0°=complete extension) and isokinetic concentric contractions at an angular velocity of 100°/s in patients with various orthopaedic and neurologic conditions. Activation will be measured on an isokinetic dynamometer, through the "interpolated twitch technique". This consists of stimulating a representative sample of the muscle belly through an electric shock. If the shock does not generate an extra force during contraction, all muscle fibres belonging to the sample reached by the electric shock can be claimed to be recruited at their tetanic frequency. Otherwise, following the stimulus, a twitch can be observed revealing submaximal voluntary recruitment of the muscle.
CONDITIONS
Official Title
Voluntary Activation During Isokinetic Contractions in Subjects with Neuromotor Disorders
Who Can Participate
Eligibility Criteria
You may qualify if you...
- Age between 18 and 70 years old
- Ability to sign the informed consent form
- Ability to understand instructions and complete the motor task
- Voluntary knee flexion-extension range of at least 70 degrees
- Maximal knee extension angle less than 30 degrees (0° = full extension)
You will not qualify if you...
- Pregnancy
- History of epilepsy
- Mini Mental State Examination score less than 27/30
- Implanted electro-sensitive devices
- Orthopedic conditions limiting lower limb mobility or strength
- Current treatment with oral anticoagulants
- Moderate or severe osteoporosis with femoral bone density t-score below -3.5
- Familiarity with the testing method
AI-Screening
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Trial Site Locations
Total: 1 location
1
Istituto Auxologico Italiano
Milan, MI, Italy, 20121
Actively Recruiting
Research Team
L
Luigi Tesio, MD, Full Professor
CONTACT
S
Stefano Scarano, MD, Research Fellow
CONTACT
How is the study designed?
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Masking
NONE
Allocation
NA
Model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Number of Arms
1
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