Robots for rehabilitation tasks require a high degree of safety for the interaction with both the patients and for the operators. In particular, high safety is a stable and intuitive control of the moving elements of the system combined with an external system of sensors able to monitor the position of every aspect of the rehabilitation system (operator, robot, and patient) and overcome in a certain measure all the events that may occur during the robotic rehabilitation procedure. This paper presents the development of an internal torque monitoring system for ASPIRE. This is a parallel robot designed for shoulder rehabilitation, which enables the use of strategies towards developing a HRI (human–robot interaction) system for the therapy. A complete analysis regarding the components of the robotic system is carried out with the purpose of determining the dynamic behavior of the system. Next, the proposed torque monitoring system is developed with respect to the previously obtained data. Several experimental tests are performed using healthy subjects being equipped with a series of biomedical sensors with the purpose of validating the proposed torque monitoring strategy and, at the same time, to satisfy the degree of safety that is requested by the medical procedure.

Background. Obesity and overweight are two pathologies that are more and more frequent in the XXI st century diagnosis and are causing high morbidity and mortality rates in the general population, especially through cardiovascular complications.Aims. Identification and early diagnosis of cardiac changes in overweight and obese patients. Material and method. We carried out a sectional, analytical and observational study on 111 subjects: 27 normal weight subjects and 84 overweight and obese patients, which were submitted to a clinical exam, biochemical exams and 2D ultrasound.Results. The presence of diastolic dysfunction is twice more frequent in overweight patients in comparison to normal weight ones (30% vs 15%) and 5 times more frequent in obese patients than normal weight ones (75% vs 15%). The size increase of the interventricular septum is correlated with the body mass index, there being statistically significant differences between normal weight vs overweight vs obese patients, as well as between overweight and obese ones. Within the whole group and within the groups, both the left ventricle mass (g) as well as the left ventricle mass to body surface ratio (g/m²) are statistically significantly higher in patients with present diastolic dysfunction (E/A < 1). This indicates a relation between the presence of diastolic dysfunction, increased left ventricle mass and body mass index (p < 0.05).Conclusions. Overweight and obese patients, unlike normal weight ones, present early cardiac changes, such as: a decrease of left ventricle ejection fraction, diastolic dysfunction, thickening of the interventricular septum, increase of the left ventricle mass both per se as well as in ratio to body surface.

Levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) is a method of continuous administration of levodopa – the standard treatment in Parkinson disease (PD, a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by resting tremor, rigidity, gait impairment, and bradykinesia), thought to reduce the short-life and pulsatile problems of oral administration. We aimed to study the effects of Levodopa-Carbidopa therapy in 2 separate groups: one with intrajejunal administration of Levodopa-Carbidopa gel and the second with oral therapy. We performed an observational retrospective Romanian cohort study on 61 patients diagnosed with PD patients, with Hoehn and Jahr 3 and 4 stages, recruited from a single regional tertiary center in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, between 2009 and 2019. The mean adjusted UPDRS III (and similarly for UPDRS II) improved in the LCIG compared to the oral therapy group with 15.6 (95% CI 12.0–19.2, P < .001), and with 18.4 (95% CI 13.8–22.9, P < .001), stratified for the Hoehn and Jahr stages 3 and 4. There was a 41.7% (10) reduction in dyskinesia, and 29.2% reduction in wearing off/on-off at 1 year in the LCIG group compared to 0% (0) dyskinesia reduction, and 2.7% reduction in wearing off/on-off in the oral therapy group. Continuous intrajejunal infusion of LCIG ensures a significant and clinical reduction in motor fluctuations compared to oral therapy in advanced PD, even after adjustment for important confounders.

(1) Background: Increased attention has lately been given to polyneuropathy in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Several papers postulated that large-fiber neuropathy (PNP) in PD is related to vitamin B12 deficiency and L-Dopa exposure. (2) Methods: Using a cross-sectional, observational study, we evaluated 73 PD patients without a previously known cause of PNP using clinical scores (UPDRS II and III and Toronto Clinical Scoring System), biological evaluation of vitamin B12 and folic acid, and nerve conduction studies to assess the prevalence and features of PNP. (3) Results: The prevalence of PNP was 49.3% in the study group. In the L-Dopa group, the frequency of PNP was 67.3% as compared to PNP in the non-L-Dopa group, where one subject had PNP (χ2 = 23.41, p < 0.01). PNP was predominantly sensory with mild to moderate axonal loss. Cyanocobalamin correlated with L-Dopa daily dose (r = −0.287, p < 0.05) and L-Dopa duration of administration (r = −0.316, p < 0.05). L-Dopa daily dose correlated with the amplitudes of sensory nerve action potentials of the superficial peroneal and radial nerves (r = −0.312, p < 0.05) (r = −0.336, p < 0.05), respectively. (4) Conclusions: PNP is more frequent in L-Dopa-treated patients than in L-Dopa-naïve patients. The results imply that longer exposure to high doses of L-Dopa may cause vitamin B12 and folate imbalance and PNP, secondarily.

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