Efficient and Robust Skeleton-Based Quality Assessment and Abnormality Detection in Human Action Performance.

Elderly people can be provided with safer and more independent living by the early detection of abnormalities in their performing actions and the frequent assessment of the quality of their motion. Low-cost depth sensing is one of the emerging technologies that can be used for unobtrusive and inexpensive motion abnormality detection and quality assessment. In this study, we develop and evaluate vision-based methods to detect and assess neuromusculoskeletal disorders manifested in common daily activities using three-dimensional skeletal data provided by the SDK of a depth camera (e.g., MS Kinect and Asus Xtion PRO). The proposed methods are based on extracting medically -justified features to compose a simple descriptor. Thereafter, a probabilistic normalcy model is trained on normal motion patterns. For abnormality detection, a test sequence is classified as either normal or abnormal based on its likelihood, which is calculated from the trained normalcy model. For motion quality assessment, a linear regression model is built using the proposed descriptor in order to quantitatively assess the motion quality. The proposed methods were evaluated on four common daily actions-sit to stand, stand to sit, flat walk, and gait on stairs-from two datasets, a publicly released dataset and our dataset that was collected in a clinic from 32 patients suffering from different neuromusculoskeletal disorders and 11 healthy individuals. Experimental results demonstrate promising results, which is a step toward having convenient in-home automatic health care services.

Genetic Association Between Growth Differentiation Factor 5 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism and Primary Knee Osteoarthritis in a Group of Egyptian Patients: A Pilot Study.

AIM: This study aimed to determine the genetic association between Growth Differentiation Factor 5 (GDF5) gene (rs143383 T/C) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and primary knee osteoarthritis (OA) in a group of Egyptian patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included 47 patients with primary knee OA and 40 apparently healthy control subjects. The disease was assessed using Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) score and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). Radiological assessment was done by Kellgren-Laurence (K/L) grading system. The genetic association of the SNP with primary knee OA was assessed by restriction fragment length polymorphism - polymerase chain reaction (RFLP-PCR). RESULTS: The mean total WOMAC index was significantly higher in patients with TT genotype as compared to patients with CC and CT genotypes (P<0.001). Similarly, the HAQ score was significantly higher among patients with TT genotype when compared to patients with CT and CC genotypes (P<0.001). There was a statistically significant association between different GDF5 genotypes and K/L radiological grading of knee OA among the studied patients (P=0.029). No statistically significant association was detected on comparing the frequency distribution of GDF5 alleles and genotypes frequencies of the SNP in patients and healthy controls. CONCLUSION: There is a possible genetic association between GDF5 (rs143383) SNP and severity of primary knee OA, which might facilitate the detection of patients with high risk for disease progression. The present study did not detect an association between the SNP and development of primary knee OA.

Transcutaneous posterior tibial nerve electrostimulation with low dose trospium chloride: Could it be used as a second line treatment of overactive bladder in females.

AIM: To evaluate the effect of adding low dose trospium chloride with transcutaneous posterior tibial nerve stimulation (TPTNS) in the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) in females after failure of behavioral therapy. METHODS: We randomized 30 women with OAB, in two groups: G I received 30 min TPTNS, three times a week; GII received TPTNS plus 20 mg trospium chloride daily. OAB Symptom Score questionnaire (OABSS), Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-short form 7 (IIQ-7), 3 day voiding diary and urodynamics at weeks 0 and 8 were evaluated. RESULTS: The groups were similar before treatment. Eight weeks after treatment, the mean OABSS decreased significantly to 8.53 ± 1.30 for group II vs 10.0 ± 2.0 for GI (P < 0.024). The mean IIQ-7 score decreased significantly to 51.86 ± 17.26 in group I vs 31.99 ± 9.26 in group II (P < 0.001). Before treatment, 11 (73.3%) and 4 (26.7%) patients in each group had moderate and poor quality of life (QoL), respectively. After treatment, 6 (40%) and 14 (93.3%) had good QoL, 7 (46.7%) and 1 (6.7%) had moderate QoL in GI and GII, respectively. Two (13.3%) patients in GI had poor QoL. The mean frequency was reduced to 8.60 ± 0.83 vs 10.60 ± 2.32 for GII and GI respectively (P = 0.006). The cystometric capacity increased from 263.40 ± 50.45 to 377.80 ± 112.92 mL (P = 0.001) for GII vs 250.13 ± 56.24 to 296.40 ± 99.0 mL (P = 0.026) for GI. CONCLUSION: TPTNS combined with low dose trospium chloride proved to be more effective than TPTNS alone in the treatment of OAB in females.

A general descriptor for detecting abnormal action performance from skeletal data.

We propose an action-independent descriptor for detecting abnormality in motion, based on medically-inspired skeletal features. The descriptor is tested on four actions/motions captured using a single depth camera: sit-to-stand, stand-to-sit, flat-walk, and climbing-stairs. For each action, a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) trained on normal motions is built using the action-independent feature descriptor. Test sequences are evaluated based on their fitness to the normal motion models, with a threshold over the likelihood, to assess abnormality. Results show that the descriptor is able to detect abnormality with accuracy ranging from 0.97 to 1 for the various motions.