title: Estimating dominant upper-limb segments during daily activity.
abstract: A new method of evaluation for functional assessment of the shoulder during daily activity is presented. An ambulatory system using inertial sensors attached on the humerus was used to differentiate a dominant from a non-dominant shoulder. The method was tested on 31 healthy volunteers with no shoulder pathology while carrying the system during 8h of their daily life. Shoulder mobility based on the angular velocities and the accelerations of the humerus were calculated and compared every 5s for both sides. Our data showed that the dominant arm of the able bodied participants was more active than the non-dominant arm for standing (+20% for the right handed, +15% for the left handed) and sitting (+24% for the right handed, +32% for the left handed) posture, while for the walking periods the use of the right and left side was almost identical. The proposed method could be used to objectively quantify upper-limb usage during activities of daily living in various shoulder disorders.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), STI-Bat. ELH, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. brian.coley@epfl.ch
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Coley
authors.forename: Brigitte M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Jolles
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Farron
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pichonnaz
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bassin
authors.forename: Kamiar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aminian
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D006811:Humerus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology; D012785:Shoulder Joint / Q000502:physiology*