Observation of neuromotor development at an early stage of an infant’s life allows for early diagnosis of deficits and the beginning of the therapeutic process. General movement assessment is a method of spontaneous movement observation, which is the foundation for contemporary attempts at objectification and computer-aided diagnosis based on video recordings’ analysis. The present study attempts to automatically detect writhing movements, one of the normal general movement categories presented by newborns in the first weeks of life. A set of 31 recordings of newborns on the second and third day of life was divided by five experts into videos containing writhing movements (with occurrence time) and poor repertoire, characterized by a lower quality of movement in relation to the norm. Novel, objective pose-based features describing the scope, nature, and location of each limb’s movement are proposed. Three machine learning algorithms are evaluated in writhing movements’ detection in leave-one-out cross-validation for different feature extraction time windows and overlapping time. The experimental results make it possible to indicate the optimal parameters for which 80% accuracy was achieved. Based on automatically detected writhing movement percent in the video, infant movements are classified as writhing movements or poor repertoire with an area under the ROC (receiver operating characteristics) curve of 0.83.

No abstract

Purpose: In clinical practice, motor development in infants is assessed subjectively. Many researchers propose objective methods, which have numerous limitations, by attaching markers or sensors to the child’s limbs. The purpose of this study is to attempt to develop objectified numerical indices to describe the limb movements of infants without interfering with spontaneous activity. Methods: 20-minute video recordings of three infants’ movements who were purposively selected from 51 subjects were included in the study. The procedure of automatic calculation of head position time in 3 positions was applied. Movement features were determined to allow for the delineation of coefficients describing the movement in numerical values. Results: Presented parameters describe three infant’s movement aspects: quality (strength), distribution of postural tonus and asymmetry in relation to head position, described as four independent values. Estimated parameters variability over time was weighted up according to expert observations. The presented method is a direct reflection of infants' observation, currently performed by highly educated and experienced therapists. Conclusions: The interpretability and usefulness of the presented parameters were proved. All parameters estimation is fully automated. The conducted research is a prelude to future work related to creating an objective and repeatable tool, initially monitoring and ultimately supporting early diagnosis for differentiating normal and abnormal motor development.

Introduction: Exercise-based approaches exist; however, it is unclear whether these approaches are based on scientific findings in the literature on trunk muscle deficits in scoliosis that could be targeted by exercises. The aims of this study were to systematically review the literature to understand the functional muscular properties of paraspinal muscles in AIS to determine: 1) differences in functional outcomes between patients with AIS and controls, 2) differences in functional outcomes between sides (concave and convex) in patients compared to controls 3) differences between concave and convex sides as well as levels in subjects with AIS, 4) differences in functional outcomes between different curve types. 5) Associations between functional outcomes and curve characteristics, and 6) associations between functional characteristics and progression. Design: Systematic review Methods: A search was conducted in EMBASE, MEDLINE, SPORTdiscus, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and Web of Science, for keywords describing functional properties of paraspinal muscles and measurement tools including: scoliosis, spinal deformity, spinal muscles, erector, rotatores, longissimus, spinalis, illiocostalis, force, strength, endurance, fatigability, and muscle fatigue. Two reviewers independently reviewed abstracts and then full-text articles to determine if they met selection criteria. Two reviewers used an extraction form to extract information and appraise the quality during the full-text review. Levels of evidence were determined for summarized results for each of the 6 objectives. Results: Our search yielded 316 unique records. Inter-reviewer agreement for abstract selection was Kappa = 0.73 and was 0.77 for full-text inclusion. Full-text review was done for 48 papers and 24 were included. A large amount of heterogeneity was observed in sample studied and assessment methodology. Quality appraisal revealed that no study met a minimum of 50 % of the relevant quality criteria. Studies recruited consistently low sample sizes and samples were largely heterogeneous. Limited evidence was noted supporting, a prolonged bilateral EMG activation during gait between AIS and controls; elevated heterolateral:homolateral activity ratios during side-bending; overall weakness in those with scoliosis compared to controls; no asymmetry in normalized muscle activity during submaximal isometric contractions; prolonged latencies on the side of the spine opposite of the curve and bilaterally in response to an unloading reflex; strength & muscle volume differences are most commonly pronounced in double curves; Axial rotation of the UEV is correlated with a high convex:concave activity ratio at the LEV; no correlation between latency and curve severity, but a correlation between latency and progression and higher convex:concave EMG ratios and progression, this is more pronounced in sitting positions. Conclusions: Evidence is limited on most of our six objectives due to low quality evidence and lack of research about muscle impairments in scoliosis. Current exerci...

No abstract