Muskuloskeletal and Functional Analysis
Acute musculoskeletal injuries and chronic musculoskeletal disorders often result from participation in high-demand activities, particularly during sports. These conditions lead to pathological changes in the soft tissues that enable skeletal movement, such as the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage, and ultimately, alterations in forward movement. Such modified gait patterns may arise from inherent tissue-level adaptations that occur soon after injury and surgical intervention. Current clinical assessments have a limited scope and are unable to objectively classify both post-surgery tissue status and to quantify active patient function. As a result, specific relationships between in vivo soft tissue properties and altered movement patterns remain unclarified in many high-incidence injury models.
With this in mind, the aims of this subgroup are to objectively assess both (1) changes in musculoskeletal tissue properties instigated by injury and disease and (2) the adaptive changes in lower extremity movement that coincide with these altered tissue properties. The central goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between these two aspects to improve clinical outcomes.
In order to achieve this, both pre-existing and newly developed methods have been employed to monitor tissue function. Sample projects include fluoroscopic assessment of the knee during both passive and active movements. Furthermore, we have developed validated kinematic methods and algorithms in order to more accurately determine joint centers and axes to monitor in vivo skeletal movement during motion analysis. Applications of the OCST method developed within this cooperation for significant reductions in soft tissue artefacts. Finally, various types of functional assessments in the lower limb have been cross-checked and compared, e.g. active versus passive, single-limb and bilateral assessments. These types of assessments are particularly interesting with the context of sports-related injuries that typically occur unilaterally, such as anterior/posterior cruciate ligament (ACL/PCL) or Achilles tendon ruptures and reconstructions.
Publications
2019 |
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Rainald Ehrig, Markus O. Heller | On intrinsic equivalences of the finite helical axis, the instantaneous helical axis, and the SARA approach. A mathematical perspective. | Journal of Biomechanics, Vol.84, pp. 4-10, 2019 |
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2015 |
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Maryam Hajizadeh, Pascal Schütz, Renate List, Heide Boeth, Rainald Ehrig, Barbara Postolka, Michael A. R. Freeman, William R. Taylor | Interpretation of tibio-femoral kinematics critically depends upon the kinematic analysis approach | ISB 2015, 25th congress of the International Society of Biomechanics, Glasgow, 2015 |
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2014 |
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Matthias Günther | Implementation and verification of methods for the validation of knee joint kinematics | Master's thesis, Freie Universität Berlin, Susanna Röblitz (Advisor), 2014 |
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Philippe Moewis, Heide Boeth, Markus O. Heller, Caroline Yntema, Tobias Jung, Ralf Doyscher, Rainald Ehrig, Yanlin Zhong, William R. Taylor | Towards understanding knee joint laxity: Errors in non-invasive assessment of joint rotation can be corrected | Medical Engineering and Physics, 36(7), pp. 889-895, 2014 |
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2013 |
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Heide Boeth, Georg N. Duda, Markus O. Heller, Rainald Ehrig, Ralf Doyscher, Tobias Jung, Philippe Moewis, Sven Scheffler, William R. Taylor | Anterior cruciate ligament-deficient patients with passive knee joint laxity have a decreased range of anterior-posterior motion during active movements | The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 41(5), pp. 1051-7, 2013 |
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2012 |
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Stefan Kratzenstein, Evgenios I. Kornaropoulos, Rainald Ehrig, Markus O. Heller, Berry M. Pöpplau, William R. Taylor | Effective marker placement for functional identification of the centre of rotation at the hip | Gait & Posture, 36(3), pp. 482-486, 2012 |
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2011 |
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William R. Taylor, Evgenios I. Kornaropoulos, Stefan Kratzenstein, Rainald Ehrig, F. Plank, Markus O. Heller | Targeted Marker Placement for the Functional Identification of the Hip Joint Centre | Transactions Vol. 36, 2011 Annual Meeting of the Orthopedic Society, 2011 |
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Rainald Ehrig, Markus O. Heller, Stefan Kratzenstein, Georg N. Duda, Adam Trepczynski, William R. Taylor | The SCoRE residual: A quality index to assess the accuracy of joint estimations | Journal of Biomechanics, 44(7), pp. 1400-1404, 2011 |
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William R. Taylor, Berry M. Pöpplau, Christian König, Rainald Ehrig, Stefan Zachow, Georg N. Duda, Markus O. Heller | The medial-lateral force distribution in the ovine stifle joint during walking | Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 29(4), pp. 567-571, 2011 |
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Markus O. Heller, Stefan Kratzenstein, Rainald Ehrig, Georgi Wassilew, Georg N. Duda, William R. Taylor | The weighted optimal common shape technique improves identification of the hip joint centre of rotation in vivo | Journal of Orthopedic Research, Vol.29, pp. 1470-5, 2011 |
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