It is a high-technology apparatus for the structural and functional analysis of musculoskeletal system. It’s the fusion between very consolidated technologies such as dynamic ultrasound, analysis of the myocardial deflection patterns, physics-based modeling and simulation of the human body and of its areas, which has open the medicine doors to the CAD/CAM world of technologies.
It is a unique piece of equipment, one of a kind. It provides a very precise analysis of the relationships between hard and soft components in the musculoskeletal system, and it also allows an accurate examination of the occlusal organ, both for a diagnostic and therapeutic reasons.
It produces a series of quantitative data, useful for the examination of the musculoskeletal system in general and for the occlusal organ in particular. It makes use of other analysis tools, such as EMG, pressure detectors and the machines used to study movement through video-tracking. This is an all-pc-based apparatus.
Dynamic ultrasound is a specific technique for clinical investigation, that is supported by an ultrasound emitting source that allows the observation of the muscles activity and the joints, both during relaxation and activity.
Analyzing the strain or deflection patters using the ultrasound footage of a skeletal muscle contraction, helps describing (both quantitively and qualitatively) the strain that the muscle has to withstand during a contraction. This detection has the purpose of analyzing different processes, like the mastication of food, the swallow of a fluid substance, a stress test (such as raising a bar from a bench press) or difficult motor skills like ambulation.
The study of strain has lunched with success 10 years ago with the speckle tracking echocardiography and today is a largely developed technic, used to measure the contractile ability of the myocardium. More recently, new applications have been developed for the study of the musculoskeletal system, but not for the masticatory organ.
ECHO.STRAIN combines medicine and specific skills taken from the engineering field. Today engineering is entering the medical world increasingly, touching what once was an exclusive of the medical field, both sharing the most advanced mathematical methods and tools. This goes to underline the growing desire of benefit from all fields of knowledge that have been developing throughout the centuries. The ultimate goal is to have a first approach to recreate (as reliable as possible) the most complex and astonishing “ machine” that we are connected to the most, our body.
