ORCID Profile
0000-0003-4862-6742
Current Organisation
LUNEX International University of Health, Exercise and Sports
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2020
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 10-08-2022
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0266731
Abstract: Lifting tasks, among manual material handling activities, are those mainly associated with low back pain. In recent years, several instrumental-based tools were developed to quantitatively assess the biomechanical risk during lifting activities. In this study, parameters related to balance and extracted from the Centre of Pressure (CoP) data series are studied in fatiguing frequency-dependent lifting activities to: i) explore the possibility of classifying people with LBP and asymptomatic people during the execution of task ii) examine the assessment of the risk levels associated with repetitive lifting activities, iii) enhance current understanding of postural control strategies during lifting tasks. Data were recorded from 14 asymptomatic participants and 7 participants with low back pain. The participants performed lifting tasks in three different lifting conditions (with increasing lifting frequency and risk levels) and kinetic and surface electromyography (sEMG) data were acquired. Kinetic data were used to calculated the CoP and parameters extracted from the latter show a discriminant capacity for the groups and the risk levels. Furthermore, sEMG parameters show a trend compatible with myoelectric manifestations of muscular fatigue. Correlation results between sEMG and CoP velocity parameters revealed a positive correlation between litude sEMG parameters and CoP velocity in both groups and a negative correlation between frequency sEMG parameters and CoP velocity. The current findings suggest that it is possible to quantitatively assess the risk level when monitoring fatiguing lifting tasks by using CoP parameters as well as identify different motor strategies between people with and without LBP.
Publisher: American Physiological Society
Date: 04-2018
DOI: 10.1152/JAPPLPHYSIOL.01115.2017
Abstract: Surface electromyographic (EMG) signal litude is typically used to compare the neural drive to muscles. We experimentally investigated this association by studying the motor unit (MU) behavior and action potentials in the vastus medialis (VM) and vastus lateralis (VL) muscles. Eighteen participants performed isometric knee extensions at four target torques [10, 30, 50, and 70% of the maximum torque (MVC)] while high-density EMG signals were recorded from the VM and VL. The absolute EMG litude was greater for VM than VL ( P 0.001), whereas the EMG litude normalized with respect to MVC was greater for VL than VM ( P 0.04). Because differences in EMG litude can be due to both differences in the neural drive and in the size of the MU action potentials, we indirectly inferred the neural drives received by the two muscles by estimating the synaptic inputs received by the corresponding motor neuron pools. For this purpose, we analyzed the increase in discharge rate from recruitment to target torque for motor units matched by recruitment threshold in the two muscles. This analysis indicated that the two muscles received similar levels of neural drive. Nonetheless, the size of the MU action potentials was greater for VM than VL ( P 0.001), and this difference explained most of the differences in EMG litude between the two muscles (~63% of explained variance). These results indicate that EMG litude, even following normalization, does not reflect the neural drive to synergistic muscles. Moreover, absolute EMG litude is mainly explained by the size of MU action potentials. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Electromyographic (EMG) litude is widely used to compare indirectly the strength of neural drive received by synergistic muscles. However, there are no studies validating this approach with motor unit data. Here, we compared between-muscles differences in surface EMG litude and motor unit behavior. The results clarify the limitations of surface EMG to interpret differences in neural drive between muscles.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-05-2017
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-03-2018
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.CLINBIOMECH.2019.01.004
Abstract: Recent work described parameters of the helical axis in asymptomatic people with potential for investigating kinematic changes in the cervical region. This approach could provide novel information on movement variability in people with neck pain, however this has never been investigated. This study aimed to investigate movement variability during active neck movements performed at different speeds in people with and without chronic neck pain. This observational case-control study examined 18 participants with chronic neck pain of either idiopathic or traumatic origin and 18 gender-matched asymptomatic participants. Cervical kinematics were captured with 3D motion capture as people with and without chronic neck pain performed flexion-extension, bilateral lateral flexion and bilateral rotation at different speeds (natural, slow, and fast). The mean distance and mean angle parameters of the helical axis were extracted to describe 3D motion and quantify movement variability. A smaller mean distance was observed in those with neck pain compared to the asymptomatic participants during flexion-extension (P = 0.019) and rotation movements (P = 0.007). The neck pain group displayed smaller values for the mean angle during rotation movements with different speeds (P = 0.01). These findings indicate less variable movement for those with neck pain relative to the asymptomatic participants. No difference in the mean angle was observed between groups for flexion-extension and lateral flexion. The findings reiterate the importance of data derived from kinematic measures, and its potential for providing clinicians with further insight into the quality of active neck movements in people with chronic neck pain.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 12-02-2022
DOI: 10.3390/S22041417
Abstract: Lifting tasks are manual material-handling activities and are commonly associated with work-related low back disorders. Instrument-based assessment tools are used to quantitatively assess the biomechanical risk associated with lifting activities. This study aims at highlighting different motor strategies in people with and without low back pain (LBP) during fatiguing frequency-dependent lifting tasks by using parameters of muscle coactivation. A total of 15 healthy controls (HC) and eight people with LBP performed three lifting tasks with a progressively increasing lifting index (LI), each lasting 15 min. Bilaterally erector spinae longissimus (ESL) activity and rectus abdominis superior (RAS) were recorded using bipolar surface electromyography systems (sEMG), and the time-varying multi-muscle coactivation function (TMCf) was computed. The TMCf can significantly discriminate each pair of LI and it is higher in LBP than HC. Collectively, our findings suggest that it is possible to identify different motor strategies between people with and without LBP. The main finding shows that LBP, to counteract pain, coactivates the trunk muscles more than HC, thereby adopting a strategy that is stiffer and more fatiguing.
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 07-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2020
DOI: 10.1016/J.CLINBIOMECH.2019.11.019
Abstract: Previous findings reported that people with chronic neck pain walk with reduced range trunk rotation, especially when walking in more challenging conditions. Quantification of the quality of neck and trunk movement during gait could provide further insight into biomechanical changes that occur in people with neck pain. This study uniquely compared the variability of trunk and neck rotation during single-task and dual-task gait in people with chronic neck pain and asymptomatic in iduals. An observational case-control study was conducted on 20 asymptomatic in iduals and 24 people with chronic neck pain of idiopathic or traumatic origin. Participants performed rectilinear walking whilst keeping the head in a neutral position (single-task) and whilst rotating the head at a natural speed (dual-task). Trunk and head rotation angles were averaged across gait cycles for the task trials. The data were normalised in time, and the average variability of angular distribution along the normalised cycle was extracted. The T a Scale for Kinesiophobia was used to assess fear of movement. During single-task gait, there were no group differences for the variability of trunk (p = 0.862) or neck (p = 0.427) rotation. For dual-task gait, there was no difference between groups for the variability of neck rotation (p = 0.636), however, the participants with neck pain displayed reduced variability of trunk rotation (p = 0.021). The neck pain group also walked at a significantly slower speed during dual-task gait (p = 0.043) compared to asymptomatic in iduals and the speed of their gait was associated with the extent of fear of movement. The strategy observed in participants with chronic neck pain likely reflects adaptive behaviour when faced with more challenging conditions for postural control.
Publisher: Ordine TSRM PSTRP di Napoli, Avellino, Benevento
Date: 05-11-2021
Abstract: Musculoskeletal diseases and disorders from biomechanical overload are very common among workers. In Italy in 2019, occupational diseases of the osteomuscular system and connective tissue accounted for 66% of the total number of diseases reported to INAIL. Many factors can contribute to the establishment of a condition of biomechanical overload and therefore to the onset of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). Among these, work-related low-back disorders (WLBDs), caused mainly by handling heavy loads, are very common. In recent years, several methods have been developed to assess the risk of biomechanical overload, included in several international standards (ISO-11228, ISO-11226, ISO/TR 12295 and 12296) aimed at identifying high-risk work activities and assessing the effectiveness of ergonomic interventions. Among the best known, with regard to the manual lifting of heavy loads, there is the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation that, while presenting many advantages (cost-effectiveness, non-invasiveness, speed of application ...) at the same time also has limitations concerning mainly the high subjectivity (subject of scientific debate) and the impossibility of these methods to assess all work tasks. From these premises, it is clear the usefulness of being able to use new quantitative risk assessment methodologies, objectifiable and repeatable, which provide for the possibility of assessing the risk from biomechanical overload even in modern working scenarios where the use of exoskeletons by workers and the sharing of working space with cobots is becoming increasingly widespread. In fact, the methods currently used are incomplete and ineffective in assessing the real impact that these technologies have on the health and safety of workers in Industry 4.0. Recent studies (some of which we were involved in) have introduced the possibilities offered by optoelectronic systems, inertial sensors (IMUs) and surface electromyography (sEMG), to integrate the most widely used observational methodologies. These modern technologies, evaluating how a subject moves his joints and uses his muscles during the execution of a work task, can integrate the observational methods, quantify the elements that characterize the risk minimizing the evaluation errors caused by in idual subjectivity and allow to carry out the assessment of biomechanical risk even in those areas where the currently most widespread methodologies are not able to give exhaustive answers. In particular, the innovative methodologies based on IMUs and sEMG, allow the instrumental quantitative assessment of biomechanical risk directly in the field thanks to the fact that the sensors are miniaturized, wearable, easily transportable and based on "wireless" transmission of data acquired on the worker who performs the task. These aspects facilitate data recording, allowing accurate signal acquisition even in unfavorable environments and in work situations where the worker interacts with a cobot or uses an exoskeleton. Previous studies have involved studies of non-fatiguing lifts, where the movement and relative risk of single repetitions of lifting were studied. Currently, we wonder what happens when the work activity becomes fatiguing and whether it is still possible to use these methods to classify risk. In addition, another unexplored question concerns the presence of workers who continue to perform work activity during the first phase of onset of musculoskeletal disorders: can the risk to which these workers are exposed be considered the same as that involving workers without pain? To answer these questions, we conducted an experimental c aign at the University of Birmingham in collaboration with Roma Tre University and INAIL in which subjects with and without back disorders performed fatiguing lifts of 15 minutes in three risk levels determined by three different lifting frequencies. We studied trunk muscle activity in terms of muscle coactivation of the trunk flexor and extensor muscles. The results show how coactivation can classify risk during manual load lifting activities by distinguishing not only the level of risk but also the presence or absence of back disorders. These results suggest that the use of electromyographic features to assess the biomechanical risk associated with work activities can also be used in the presence of fatiguing lifting also to distinguish the risk in case of subjects with back pain. This methodology could be used to monitor fatigue and extend the possibilities offered by currently available instrumental-based approaches.
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 16-10-2018
Abstract: The causes for the disabling condition of phantom limb pain (PLP), affecting 85% of utees, are so far unknown, with few effective treatments available. Sensory feedback based strategies to normalize the motor commands to control the phantom limb offer important targets for new effective treatments as the correlation between phantom limb motor control and sensory feedback from the motor intention has been identified as a possible mechanism for PLP development. Ten upper-limb utees, suffering from chronic PLP, underwent 16 days of intensive training on phantom-limb movement control. Visual and tactile feedback, driven by muscular activity at the stump, was provided with the aim of reducing PLP intensity. A 32.1% reduction of PLP intensity was obtained at the follow-up (6 weeks after the end of the training, with an initial 21.6% reduction immediately at the end of the training) reaching clinical effectiveness for chronic pain reduction. Multimodal sensory-motor training on phantom-limb movements with visual and tactile feedback is a new method for PLP reduction. The study results revealed a substantial reduction in phantom limb pain intensity, obtained with a new training protocol focused on improving phantom limb motor output using visual and tactile feedback from the stump muscular activity executed to move the phantom limb.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: Luxembourg
Location: Italy
No related grants have been discovered for Alessandro Marco De Nunzio.