Water as a Blood Model for Determination of CO Removal Performance of Membrane Oxygenators.

CO removal via membrane oxygenators has become an important and reliable clinical technique. Nevertheless, oxygenators must be further optimized to increase CO removal performance and to reduce severe side effects. Here, in vitro tests with water can significantly reduce costs and effort during development.

Microstructured Hollow Fiber Membranes: Potential Fiber Shapes for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenators.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenators are essential medical devices for the treatment of patients with respiratory failure. A promising approach to improve oxygenator performance is the use of microstructured hollow fiber membranes that increase the available gas exchange surface area. However, by altering the traditional circular fiber shape, the risk of low flow, stagnating zones that obstruct mass transfer and encourage thrombus formation, may increase.

Suitable CO Solubility Models for Determination of the CO Removal Performance of Oxygenators.

CO removal via membrane oxygenators during lung protective ventilation has become a reliable clinical technique. For further optimization of oxygenators, accurate prediction of the CO removal rate is necessary. It can either be determined by measuring the CO content in the exhaust gas of the oxygenator (sweep flow-based) or using blood gas analyzer data and a CO solubility model (blood-based).

A Robotic System with EMG-Triggered Functional Eletrical Stimulation for Restoring Arm Functions in Stroke Survivors.

Background: Robotic systems combined with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) showed promising results on upper-limb motor recovery after stroke, but adequately-sized randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are still missing.

Objective: To evaluate whether arm training supported by RETRAINER, a passive exoskeleton integrated with electromyograph-triggered functional electrical stimulation, is superior to advanced conventional therapy (ACT) of equal intensity in the recovery of arm functions, dexterity, strength, activities of daily living, and quality of life after stroke.

Methods: A single-blind RCT recruiting 72 patients was conducted.

A generic musculoskeletal model of the juvenile lower limb for biomechanical analyses of gait.

The aim of this study was to develop a generic musculoskeletal model of a healthy 10-year-old child and examine the effects of geometric scaling on the calculated values of lower-limb muscle forces during gait. Subject-specific musculoskeletal models of five healthy children were developed from in vivo MRI data, and these models were subsequently used to create a generic juvenile (GJ) model. Calculations of lower-limb muscle forces for normal walking obtained from two scaled-generic versions of the juvenile model (SGJ1 and SGJ2) were evaluated against corresponding results derived from an MRI-based model of one subject (SSJ1).