BackThe device and method has been developed to non-invasively evaluate in vivo superficial skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments and other biological soft tissue. It is based on a three-step measuring process. First, generating a constant pre-load to the soft tissue, second, generating a single mechanical impulse with quick release, and third, detecting the reaction of the tissue being evaluated with an accelerometer. It does not cause neurological reaction or non-elastic deformation of the biological tissue being evaluated. The mechanical change in the shape of the tissue and its mechanical response are registered as a graph of the tissue’s oscillations measured by the accelerometer. For calculating the parameters, the time span on the graph, which starts at the beginning of the oscillation period, is used. The method is simple and conducting the test will not take more than a minute.
Myoton has a wide area of use. It can be employed to assess the effect of interventions in science and medicine, prevent overload injuries in sport and work environments, assess the asymmetry of body sides, evaluate rehabilitation efficiency, and to evaluate and monitor the training process of athletes. The more advanced myometric device MyotonPRO even allows to monitor astronauts’ muscle health during space flights.
This method and device enable recording and data-processing to be performed simultaneously, as well as statistically significant estimates to be made in real time. The parameters obtained with this non-invasive device correlate well with the parameters measured with classical diagnostic methods. Therefore, this device enables to accelerate the process of diagnosing, including in extreme situations.
Contact:
Associate Professor of Biomechanics at the Institute of Physics
This article was supported by the European Regional Development Fund through Estonian Research Council.
