This disclosure relates to a method and system for diagnosing the extent of degeneration of a knee joint, and determining a suitable prosthesis for use in knee arthroplasty as indicated by the extent of joint degeneration. According to the disclosure there is provided a method of determining a corrective surgical procedure for the treatment of degeneration of a joint, including the steps of comparing a set of radiological images, and in particular a set of x-ray images of the joint, to a set of degenerative joint conditions to determine a diagnosis; and correlating the diagnosis with a grading system which prescribes a corrective surgical procedure. The prescribed procedure may be a total knee arthroplasty, a partial knee arthroplasty, a patellofemoral arthroplasty or an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

The current subject matter provides a tool for evaluating the risk of failure or the likelihood of success of surgery of healing ligaments and tendons in the body. In some embodiments, a region of a scan comprising one or more of an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) or an ACL graft can be defined. A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging data set can be obtained. MR parameters characterizing a size and a quality of the ACL or ACL graft can be derived using the MR data. The MR parameters can be used as inputs to a predictive model. A score characterizing a likelihood of failure of the ACL or ACL graft in a human patient can be generated using the predictive model.

Contemplated systems for monitoring and analysis of human motion synthesis are disclosed herein that include: at least one garment configured to be worn by a user, at least one inertial sensor, wherein the at least one inertial sensor is integrated with or into the at least one garment, an information system, wherein the information system communicates with the at least one inertial sensor to produce a set of data, at least one musculorientation metric generated by the information system, and at least one performance report that is produced from the analysis of the at least one musculorientation metric.

Various limb manipulation and evaluation devices are provided. The devices generally include three drives, namely a first drive configured to manipulate a first bone relative to a second bone in a first direction, a second drive configured to manipulate the first bone relative to the second bone in a second direction, a third drive configured to manipulate the first bone relative to the second bone in a second direction. The three directions are different relative to each other and in some embodiments represent three distinct axes. The devices are further configured such that at least one of the drives is mutually decoupled relative to at least one other drive, such that operation of the one drive does not affect the position or movement of the another drive. One or multiple of the drives may be decoupled. A corresponding method of operating such decoupled drives is also provided.

A method for assessing the orthopaedic performance of a joint of a patient can comprise implanting at least a first and second RF wirelessly detectable markers in first and second bones associated with a site and determining and storing their positions before a surgical procedure is performed. The procedure can be carried out on the site and the positions of the first and second markers can be detected and stored after the procedure has been completed. The detected positions can be used to generate a representation of the orthopaedic performance of the joint after the procedure.

A motion sensor is attached to a patient's limb distal to a joint on which surgery has occurred and another motion sensor is attached to the limb proximate to the joint. In the preferred embodiment, the motion sensors are accelerometers and gyroscopes that are capable of generating data that corresponds to flexion of the joint. Temperature sensors are attached to the patient at the surgical site at the joint and at a site separated from the surgical site so that the temperature difference between the sensors may be monitored. Data from the sensors is used to monitor the patient's post-surgical condition and rehabilitation and to provide feedback to the patient.

A rise action assistance device according to an aspect of the present disclosure is provided with: a myoelectric potential acquirer that acquires a myoelectric value of a sitting user's tibialis anterior muscle, and a myoelectric value of the sitting user's vastus lateralis muscle or a myoelectric value of the sitting user's vastus medialis muscle; an angle acquirer that acquires a bend angle of the sitting user's upper body; a detector circuit that detects a start of a rise action by the user, based on the myoelectric value of the user's tibialis anterior muscle, the myoelectric value of the user's vastus lateralis muscle or the myoelectric value of the user's vastus medialis muscle, and the bend angle of the user's upper body; and an assistor that starts assistance of the rise action after the start of the rise action is detected.

Methods for evaluating subjects having conditions associated with loss of muscle function (e.g., a motor neuron disease, a neuromuscular disease, or a myopathy) by measuring muscle function (e.g., muscle strength) are disclosed.

A bone density estimating method, comprising: acquiring, by an MR scanning device, a magnetic resonance, MR, sequence of a body portion, wherein the MR sequence comprises quantitative information of the body portion; generating, by a processing circuit, an MR image of the body portion based on the MR sequence, wherein each voxel of the MR image represents a volume of the body portion; identifying, by the processing circuit, a part of the MR image representing a bone portion of the body portion; for a voxel of the identified part of the MR image, estimating a bone density of a volume of the bone portion represented by the voxel, based on a quantitative value of the voxel. The quantitative information of the body portion comprises a proton density.

A unified coil assembly for magnetic resonance imaging is disclosed. The coil assembly includes an RF coil element and a shim coil array with a shim coil element. The shim coil element is physically separated or partially separated from the RF coil element. The shim coil element includes a DC current loop having a DC power supply connection to allow DC current to generate a local BO magnetic field. The unified coil array assembly is configured to simultaneously provide an RF mode for at least one of transmit or receive and a direct current mode to generate a local B0 magnetic field for B0 shimming Larger number of shim coils relative to the RF coil element provides superior shimming performance. The mutual inductance between the shim coil element and the RF coil element is minimized by proposed geometrical decoupling methods in order to minimize the RF interaction between the two.