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“In vivo” studies reported that the co-activation of gastrocnemius and quadriceps femoris (QF) muscles produces ACL strain values greater than those caused by an isolated activation of either muscle. Aim of this study was to assess the co-activation of gastrocnemius (lateral head, GL) and vastus lateralis (VL) in healthy and young adults during walking. To this purpose the Statistical Gait Analysis was performed, that allows a characterization of gait considering hundreds of strides belonging to the same walking trial. Three GL/VL co-activations were detected during a single gait cycle: in foot-contact phase, from 6.8±8.5% to 22.9±23.3% of gait cycle, (FC co-activation), in push-off phase, from 33.0±11.9% to 41.5±13.4% (PO co-activation), and in swing phase, from 86.5±6.7% to 93.2±5.9% (SW co-activation). FC co-activation was the most recurrent (in 100% of the strides, P

Background: Fetal well-being evaluation may be accomplished by monitoring cardiac activity through fetal electrocardiography. Direct fetal electrocardiography (acquired through scalp electrodes) is the gold standard but its invasiveness limits its clinical applicability. Instead, clinical use of indirect fetal electrocardiography (acquired through abdominal electrodes) is limited by its poor signal quality. Objective: Aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability of the Segmented-Beat Modulation Method to denoise indirect fetal electrocardiograms in order to achieve a signal-quality at least comparable to the direct ones. Method: Direct and indirect recordings, simultaneously acquired from 5 pregnant women during labor, were filtered with the Segmented-Beat Modulation Method and correlated in order to assess their morphological correspondence. Signal-to-noise ratio was used to quantify their quality. Results: Amplitude was higher in direct than indirect fetal electrocardiograms (median:104 µV vs. 22 µV; P=7.66·10-4), whereas noise was comparable (median:70 µV vs. 49 µV, P=0.45). Moreover, fetal electrocardiogram amplitude was significantly higher than affecting noise in direct recording (P=3.17·10-2) and significantly in indirect recording (P=1.90·10-3). Consequently, signal-to-noise ratio was initially higher for direct than indirect recordings (median:3.3 dB vs. -2.3 dB; P=3.90·10-3), but became lower after denoising of indirect ones (median:9.6 dB; P=9.84·10-4). Eventually, direct and indirect recordings were highly correlated (median: ρ=0.78; P-208), indicating that the two electrocardiograms were morphologically equivalent. Conclusion: Segmented-Beat Modulation Method is particularly useful for denoising of indirect fetal electrocardiogram and may contribute to the spread of this noninvasive technique in the clinical practice.

Understanding the fetal heart rate (FHR) in the second stage of labor is important to recognize critical clinical outcomes. During this time, fetus is subject to head compression that activate baroreceptor reflexes that cause FHR deceleration. Large deceleration areas (DA: measured as duration by depth), have been associated to critical fetal outcomes. A preliminary study on 33 pregnant women reported a significant inverse correlation between DA in the last 60 minutes before delivery and umbilical pH at birth (fetal-distress measure when 7.1). Results confirmed that Cases have significantly higher DA than Controls (5.32 cm2 vs 1.44 cm2; P < 0.05). The inverse correlation between DA in the last 60 minutes before delivery and pH at birth, was weak but significant (ρ=-0.23, P

The Zephyr BioHarness 3.0 (BH3) is a popular wearable system specifically designed for training optimization of professional athletes. BH3 provides the electrocardiogram (ECG BH3) and the heart-rate signal (HRSBH3). Aim of this study is to evaluate the reliability of HRSBH3 to assess its clinical applicability to the general population for cardiac-risk evaluations. Data were acquired from 10 healthy subjects (age: 34±17 years) during a 5-minutes rest. Since the tachogram represents the standard signal for studying the heart rate (HR) and its variability, ECG BH3 was elaborated in order to get the tachogram (HRSTG). HRSBH3 and HRSTG were compared in terms of mean HR (MHR, bpm), HR standard deviation (HRSD, bpm) and HRSD error (bpm). HRSBH3 and HRSTG provided comparable MHR (73.07±15.53 bpm vs 72.86±15.57 bpm, respectively) while HRSD by HRSBH3 was significantly lower than HRSD by HRS TG (4.51 ±2.29 bpm vs 5.63±2.99 bpm, respectively; P=0.0043). HRSD error was significantly greater than zero (0.20–3.00 bpm; P=0.0043); moreover, it was strongly correlated to HRSD by HRS TG (p=0.82, P=0.0036). Thus, HRS BH3 is appropriate only for sport applications based on MHR estimations, but not to clinical evaluations based on HRV measurements.

The surface electromyogram (SEMG) is a signal noninvasively (through electrodes located on the body surface) acquired for evaluating the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. In thoracic acquisitions, SEMG is typically affected by the electrocardiographic (ECG) signal, representing the electrical activity of the heart. SEMG and ECG power spectra mainly fall within 5-450 Hz and 0.05-50 Hz, respectively. Consequently, SEMG and ECG components overlap in the 5-50 Hz range. Although removing SEMG low spectral components, high-pass linear filtering (LF) with a cut-off frequency of 20 Hz remains the standard technique to clean SEMG from ECG. Thus, the aim of the present study was to propose the Segmented Beat Modulation Method (SBMM) as a tool to clean SEMG from ECG without removing SEMG components below 20 Hz. A SEMG recording was first acquired from the left rectus abdominis of a subject, and then filtered using both SBMM and LF. Filtered SEMGs obtained with the two techniques were compared. Results indicate that SBMM eliminates ECG interference from SEMG better than LF, since the latter procedure maintains ECG components between 20 and 50 Hz. In addition, after ECG removal by SBMM, SEMG showed a significant amount of spectral components (up to 20%) in the low-frequency range. Maintaining such low-frequency components, which go lost when applying LF, is desirable since they likely associate to the firing rates of the active motor units. In conclusion, SBMM represents a useful tool to clean SEMG from ECG without loss of frequency components.

The role of central and peripheral vision in the maintenance of upright stance is debated in literature. Stargardt disease causes visual deficits affecting the central field, but leaving unaltered a patient's peripheral vision. Hence, the study of this rare pathology gives the opportunity to selectively investigate the role of central vision in posture. Postural sway in quiet stance was analyzed in 10 Stargardt patients and 10 control subjects, in three different conditions: (1) eyes closed, (2) eyes open, gazing at a fixed target, and (3) eyes open, tracking a moving target. Stargardt patients outperformed controls in the condition with eyes closed, showing a reduced root mean square (RMS) of the medio-lateral COP displacement, while their performance was not significantly different from controls in the antero-posterior direction. There were no significant differences between patients and controls in open eyes conditions. These results suggest that Stargardt patients adapted to a different visual-somatosensory integration, relying less on vision, especially in the medio-lateral direction. Hence, the central vision seems to affect mostly the medio-lateral direction of postural sway. This finding supports the plausibility of the "functional sensitivity hypothesis", that assigns complementary roles to central and peripheral vision in the control of posture.