Dynamometry as a coadjuvant analysis for the characterization of frailty syndrome in the Elderly

Abstract

Over the last decade, the scientific advances in health care have increased the life expectancy of the world population. Although the number of research in this area has increased, there are still some question marks about the frailty in the elderly to be addressed. The objective of this work is to develop a biomedical instrumentation to measure and to assess the muscle strength by force measurements. In order to obtain the force curve, both handgrip strength and the quadriceps muscle strength are analyzed in the Maximum Voluntary Isometric Contraction (MVIC) from dominant body side. Muscle strength is measured by one load cell coupled into a home-made device. The signal is conditioned by a microcon-troller and connected to a computer system for data visualiza-tion and storage. Both handgrip and quadriceps muscle strength are analyzed from two healthy volunteers. Prelimi-nary results of this pilot study indicate that the developed device meets the objectives of this work and that it can be used to enhance the assessment in the elderly with the frailty syn-drome.