In order to assess the individual health state, we propose newly developed technique and method based on correlation with health which are obtained from sixteen kinds of biomedical information. The new indicator “Total Body Score (TBS) ” is defined by the method using a data set of seventy-eight Japanese males and females whose ages vary from twenty-two to sixty-three years old. The utility and the practicality of TBS are examined according to the criteria of metabolic syndrome (MS) proposed by The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine. A significant difference between MS and non-MS person is observed in TBS. Compared to the well-known index called the Body Age, the TBS index more properly indicates the physical condition of individuals. The TBS index is sufficiently utilized for comprehensive assessment of human health state better than the conventional criteria. It is clarified, therefore, that the proposed technique and method are superior to assess biomedical information and useful for preventive medicine and health science.

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the needles used for epidural anesthesia. Medical doctors feel resistant force when inserting needles into the epidural space, and resistance diminishes after puncturing the ligamentum flavum, but the relationship between the resistant force and the puncture of the ligamentum flavum is not known. We conducted a comparative study using porcine ligamentum flavum. Porcine spine from a slaughterhouse was divided into thoracic (n=11) and lumbar (n=17) spine, and test pieces were fixed by RTV rubber. A needle and a load cell were set on a motorized stage, and the speed of insertion was set at 2 mm/s. A CCD camera recorded the images during the puncture of the ligamentum flavum. Two needles were employed; one was a sharp (tip angle of 25 degrees), the other was a dull (tip angle of 38 degrees) . The results showed that the ligamentum flavum deformed before the needle puncture. The peak value of force (Fp), drop of force (Fd), and deformation of the ligamentum flavum were compared by Student-Newman-Keuls test. Fp and Fd of the lumbar spine were higher than the thoracic spine (p<0.01) . Fp and Fd of the sharp needle were lower than those of the dull needle (p<0.01) . The difference in the deformation was not significant between the two types of spine and the two types of needle. Our conclusions are that 1) the ligamentum flavum deforms up to 3 mm before puncturing; 2) the lumbar spine shows a higher resistant force; and 3) the insertion resistance of the dull needle was 30% higher than that of the sharp needle.

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More than seven million people around the world die of cancer each year, some of whom suffer from pain caused by bone metastasis. In their final stages of life, the pain is such that they cannot even roll over, one of the activities of daily life. With this in mind, in this research we aimed to develop a new corset for patients with cancer bone metastasis, not to feel pain which is caused by the trunk twisting motion when they conduct their rollovers in terminal care. Specifically, the surface EMG signal, which is the input signal of the system to recognize the start of the rollover movement, is delivered in this paper. At first, the rollover movement is categorized into Upper Limb Precedence Type, Lower Limb Precedence Type and Lower Limb Flexion Type. After that, the activities of four muscles (external abdominal oblique, internal abdominal oblique, rectus abdominis and erectore spinae) affecting trunk movement were monitored during the process of each rolling over type. Following an EMG experiment using the Average Reflected Value (ARV) as an evaluation index with three young subjects, the internal abdominal oblique (IO) muscle was seen to be active before the start or in the early stages of rollover motion, although IO was relatively prevalent in previous work. Moreover, the same EMG experiment with a elderly woman showed the activity of the lower part of the IO muscle before the start or at the early stage of the rollover movement. Hence, the surface EMG signal of the lower part of the IO muscle was selected as the input signal of the equipment to recognize the start of the rollover movement.

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