• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 2021

Background: Lateral epicondylitis (LE) is the most common chronic musculoskeletal conditions of the upper extremity with pain and wrist extension disability. The tendon which is most affected is the extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB). Previous study evaluated the effect of taping technique on patient with LE, but no study investigated the changes of electromyography (EMG) on ECRB when using dynamic taping (DT) technique. Objects: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of DT technique using dynamic tape on muscle activity of ECRB during wrist isometric extension, isotonic extension and flexion. Methods: Twenty-one healthy subjects volunteered to participate in this study. Subjects were instructed to perform wrist isometric extension, isotonic extension and flexion without and with DT on origin area of ECRB. Wrist isometric extension was performed at 75%, 50% and 25% (%maximal voluntary contraction force), respectively, based on maximum contraction force. Isotonic extension and flexion test used dumbbell. EMG data was collected from ECRB. Results: EMG of ECRB were statistically significant decrease in wrist isotonic extension after DT (p < 0.05). Significant increase in wrist isometric extension during 25% and 50% force task (p < 0.05). Conclusion: This study applied DT technique to suppress the wrist extensor muscles in 21 healthy adults in their twenties. Change in muscle activity was compared in the ECRB muscle during wrist isometric extension, isotonic extension and flexion task. Based on the results of this study, the DT technique applied to the wrist and forearm area can reduce the load on the wrist extensors when the wrist performs various movements during daily life movements or repetitive tasks, and by using these effects, excessive stress is applied to tennis elbow patients.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.43-49
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• 2008

The objective of this study was to compare the differences on the activity and power of the wrist flexors and extensors in subjects before the use of a wrist extension splint, after nighttime wearing of the splint, and after daytime wearing of the splint. Ten healthy male and ten healthy female students (mean: $22.4{\pm}1.2$ years old) volunteered to wear custom-made wrist splints either during the night or during the day, The hand force of the wrist flexor and extensor, and grip force were measured by PowerTrack II and Dynatron, respectively. At the same time, the activities of the wrist flexor and extensor were recorded by' surface electromyography. The maximal hand force and motor unit recruitment of the flexor carpi ulnatis (FCU) increased significantly (p<.05) when tile subjects wore the wrist splints during the daytime, but the maximal hand power of the FCU decreased with nighttime use of the splints. The maximal hand power and motor unit recruitment of the extensor carpi radialis (ECR) and the ECR/FCU ratio decreased both during nighttime and daytime use. The decrement of the ECR/FCU ratio was significant (p<.05). Wearing a wrist extension splint during nighttime led to the maintenance of a lengthened position of the wrist flexor, resulting in the wrist flexor becoming weak. Wearing a wrist extension splint during the day induced the wrist flexors to be greater. In healthy people, the imbalance between the wrist flexors and extensors may be caused by the use of a wrist extension splint. This study indicates that therapists have to consider whether a splint will be effective, as well as the wearing time, when prescribing splints to people with problems of the musculoskeletal system.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.163-170
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• 2020

Background: The characteristics of lateral epicondylitis (LE) are muscle strength weakness and increased common extensor tendon (CET) thickness. Ultrasonography has recently been used to evaluate tendinopathy. Diamond taping (DT) is commonly used to manage patients with LE. However, no previous studies have investigated the effects of DT on CET thickness. Objects: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of DT applied around the lateral elbow on CET thickness, grip strength, and wrist extension force in healthy subjects. Methods: The subjects were 26 adults (13 male) in their twenties. First, the CET thickness was measured at rest. The CET thickness was measured by using ultrasonography at two points. The subjects were then instructed to perform maximal grip activities or maximal wrist extension activities before and after DT around the lateral elbow. The DT technique was applied using non-elastic tape. While the subjects performed maximal grip activities, the investigator measured the maximum grip strength (MGS) and CET thickness. Likewise, while the subjects performed maximal wrist extension activities, the investigator measured the maximum wrist extension force (MWEF) and CET thickness. Results: The MGS showed a statistically significant improvement after DT taping application in men (p < 0.05). The MWEF showed a statistically significant improvement after DT application in male (p < 0.01) and female (p < 0.05). When performing the activities, the CET thickness increased compared to that at rest. However, CET thickness didn't show a statistically significant improvement before and after DT. Conclusion: This study shows that DT applied around the lateral elbow is effective in improving MGS and MWEF. However, it does not affect CET thickness.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.27-31
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• 2014

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common work-related peripheral neuropathy. In addition to grip force and repetitive hand exertions, wrist posture (hyperextension and hyperflexion) may be a risk factor for CTS among workers. However, findings of studies evaluating the relationship between wrist posture and CTS are inconsistent. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a meta-analysis of existing studies to evaluate the evidence of the relationship between wrist posture at work and risk of CTS. Methods: PubMed and Google Scholar were searched to identify relevant studies published between 1980 and 2012. The following search terms were used: "work related", "carpal tunnel syndrome", "wrist posture", and "epidemiology". The studies defined wrist posture as the deviation of the wrist in extension or flexion from a neutral wrist posture. Relative risk (RR) of individual studies for postural risk was pooled to evaluate the overall risk of wrist posture on CTS. Results: Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. All were cross-sectional or case-control designs and relied on self-report or observer's estimates for wrist posture assessment. The pooled RR of work-related CTS increased with increasing hours of exposure to wrist deviation or extension/flexion [RR = 2.01; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.646-2.43; p < 0.01: Shore-adjusted 95% CI: 1.32-2.97]. Conclusion: We found evidence that prolonged exposure to non-neutral wrist postures is associated with a twofold increased risk for CTS compared with low hours of exposure to non-neutral wrist postures. Workplace interventions to prevent CTS should incorporate training and engineering interventions that reduce sustained non-neutral wrist postures.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2007

This study was performed to evaluate the characteristics of transmitted vibration to hand-arm system under different work posture while operating a light-weighted powered hand grinder. For the experiment, 8 different types of wrist posture (natural, unlar-flexion, radual-flexion, flexion, extension, complex posture, and etc.) and 3 types of feed force (20[N], 50[N], 70[N]) were considered. 10 male subjects were employed to polish metal plate with a hand grinder. All of them were normal and healthy with no history and symptom of the work related musculoskeletal disorders in the dominant hand. Vibration acceleration data were recorded with sampling rate, 2048[Hz]. In addition, unweighted overall R.M.S. acceleration at the tool and wrist, and transmissibility between them were used to evaluate factors from the recorded tri-axial vibration acceleration. The results indicate that transmissibility of natural wrist posture was significantly higher than others. In addition, as the feed force becomes larger, the vibration was transmitted in large quantities to hand-arm system through radius.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 1997

It is improtant to get accurate information about the grip strength for designing ergonomic grips and handles. It has been known that the excessive and repetitive use of grip force and unnatural posture of the wrist may cause cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendrome, tendonitis, DeQuervan's disease, etc. In this paper we have measured the grip strength for sitting and standing posture for Korean adults ; 114 males and 105 females aged from the 20's to above the 50's. And this paper performed statistical analysis for deriving characteristics between grip strength and anthropometric data. The results are as follows ; (1) The maximum grip strength posture is exerted under standing posture with the elbow in full extension (180 .deg. ) for both males and females (2) There is significant difference among posture, sex and right and/or left handedness (3) Grip strength decreases with age for male, but it traces an inverted U curve for female (4) Grip strength has corre- lations with the age, weight, height, BSA, forearm length, hand length, thickness of wrist, circumference of wrist, and breadth of wrist for males.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.206-216
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• 2017

This paper proposes a method to simultaneously estimate two degrees of freedom in wrist forces (extension - flexion, adduction - abduction) and one degree of freedom in grasping forces using Electromyography (EMG) signals of the forearms. To correlate the EMG signals with the forces, we applied a multi - layer perceptron(MLP), which is a machine learning method, and used the characteristics of the muscles constituting the forearm to generate learning data. Through the experiments, the similarity between the MLP target value and the estimated value was investigated by applying the coefficient of determination ($R^2$) and root mean square error (RMSE) to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. As a result, the $R^2$ values with respect to the wrist flexion-extension, adduction - abduction and grasping forces were 0.79, 0.73 and 0.78 and RMSE were 0.12, 0.17, 0.13 respectively.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.589-599
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• 2017

Objective: The objective of this study was to measure the upper-limb motions and postures of grapes-harvesting tasks using electrical goniometers and analyze the upper-limb motions in a kinematic way to assess the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Background: Grapes farmers are exposed to various risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) such as repetitive upper-limb motions, non-neutral postures, and manual handling of heavy items. The farmers have to use scissors repetitively while harvesting grapes with their being arms elevated over the shoulder height, which presumed to increase the physical workload. It has been reported that the grapes farmers feel the harvesting task as the one of the hardest work in cultivating grapes. We tried measure the wrist and elbow angles while the farmers were carrying out harvesting tasks to understand how much workload the work impose on the farmers, which can be helpful in making interventions of preventing musculosksletal disorders among grapes farmers. Method: We measured joint angles at the right wrist and elbow with a wireless measuring system with two electrical goniometers from five grape farmers. The grapes-harvesting task was classified into 6 different subtasks: 1) searching, 2) picking, 3) cleaning, 4) carrying, 6) storing, and 7) miscellaneous tasks. The subtasks were compared by mean angles, 10%, 50%, and 90% APDF values of wrist flexion/extension, ulnar/radial deviation, and elbow flexion. Results: The Kruskal-Wallis tests showed that the 10th percentiles of APDF of ulnar/radial deviation and flexion/extension of the wrist significantly differs among subtasks (p<0.05). It was found that the farmers assumed more deviated wrist postures in the ulnar direction when they picking and adjusting the grapes. The use of scissors seemed to force the farmers to severely bend their wrist in the directions of ulnar deviation and flexion. The grapes-harvesting task showed similar wrist postures and motion with poultry deboning and milking tasks. Conclusion: The grapes harvesting tasks make the farmers take ulnar deviated and extended postures in the wrist. The use of scissors makes them take more severely deviated postures in the wrist. Safety guidelines including use of ergonomic scissors can be provided to the farmers to improve their work conditions. Application: The results of this study can be used as a basic data for the development of safety guidelines for agricultural work.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.482-487
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in wrist extensor activity, pain, and grip strength before and after wearing a forearm strap in their 20s who complained of chronic lateral epicondylitis for more than 6 weeks. As a result of the study, there was an increase in wrist extensor activity on both the injured and non-injured sides after wearing the forearm strap, but this was not statistically significant. There was a statistically decrease in pain after wearing the forearm strap on the injured side, and a statistically significant increase in grip strength on both. After applying the forearm strap with pad, there was an increase in muscle activity of ECRB (extensor carpi radialis brevis) on both the injured and non-injured sides. This is thought to be due to the strap pad acting as a compressive force, reducing pain, and increasing muscle recruitment ability due to stability in wrist extension. However, considering that the number of study subjects is insufficient to generalize the results, additional supplementary research is deemed necessary.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.95-103
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze a change of maximal grip forces and EMG of agonists in upper extremity of 8 professional Ssirum players according to Satbar-grip patterns, to elucidate prime agonist muscles, contribution rate of each muscle, and a difference on EMG in upper extremity. one-way ANOVA(RM) performed for average and maximal values of each player after standardization and statistical significance was set as p<.05. The result includes the following: the highest grip force was A type with a statistic significance using one-way ANOVA and Duncan's comparison between A and C type. In summary the highest grip force was exerted on extension in the wrist than flexion in all grip types. Average and maximal values of biceps brachii and brachioradialis muscles were statistically significant and ones of flexor carpi ulnaris and extensor capi ulnaris were not.