Customisation of musculoskeletal shoulder modelling
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Customisation of musculoskeletal shoulder modelling
IRAS ID
209403
Contact name
Anthony Bull
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 7 months, 1 days
Research summary
Musculoskeletal shoulder models are computational tools that are used to understand the functioning of the joint. Many parameters in the shoulder cannot be measured directly and musculoskeletal models provide insight into these, predicting the mechanics of the joint, muscular activation as well as muscle forces required to perform a specific shoulder motion. Musculoskeletal shoulder models are based on a single cadaveric anatomy whose bony structures as well as muscle parameters are utilised to establish the model.
Musculoskeletal models of the shoulder have been validated utilising instrumented shoulder implants and Electromyography (recordings of the electrical activity of skeletal muscle using surface electrodes) to assess the accuracy of model output. The results of these studies demonstrate that the output of musculoskeletal shoulder models can differ up to 34% when compared to gold standard measurements of shoulder joint forces using instrumented implants. This inaccuracy is introduced by relying on only a single cadaveric anatomy to establish the shoulder model although muscle morphology and skeletal parameter differ across subjects.
The aim of this study is to obtain a variety of anatomical information from healthy subjects utilising Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The establishment of an MRI database will provide the basis to improve musculoskeletal shoulder models by incorporating anatomical differences between subjects into those models. The MRI scans will be utilised to build a subject specific shoulder model for each participant. The model output will be compared to the output of the musculoskeletal shoulder utilising the generic cadaver anatomy. The improvement in model output utilising anatomical information from MRI will be assessed with Electromyography in a different future study.
The establishment of an MRI database has been demonstrated to improve musculoskeletal models of the lower limb. The emulation of this principle has the ability to also improve musculoskeletal shoulder models that are clinically being used to improve treatment techniques.
REC name
London - Dulwich Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/1647
Date of REC Opinion
28 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion