A facile inverse dynamics method to study the impacts of fatigue on the lower limb biomechanics

ABSTRACTFatigue can significantly affect the biomechanics of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during single-legged jumping, and these changes are closely related to ACL injuries. Unfortunately, there is no convenient way to accurately and quickly track these changes. This present study aimed to develop such a method based on video capture and inverse dynamics simulation.Are our method's results accurate and reliable? Fifteen participants performed sing-legged jumping before and after the fatigue protocol, and their actions were videotaped. The videos were processed and converted to marked motion data, used to drive the mannequin model in AnyBody Modelling System (AMS) for the inverse dynamics simulations. The ACL segment was also constructed based on one participant's MRI data and added the mannequin model.Our results were similar to the findings from previous studies. Neuromuscular fatigue decreased the peak flexion angles and increased the low-the-limb muscle strength and activation. These alterations might contribute to ACL tears and ruptures. In addition, the simulation showed that the ACL force significantly (p < 0.05) increased as a result of fatigue during single-legged jumping. Our study provides a facile and reliable method to study the effects of neuromuscular fatigue on lower-the-limb biomechanics. Such a method can be applied to investigate other risk factors on ACL injuries and assist in developing workable plans for athlete training in the future.KEYWORDS: Anterior cruciate ligamentneuromuscular fatiguesingle-legged jumpinginverse dynamicslower-the-limb biomechanics AcknowledgmentsFunding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 51502034, 51872042]; the National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant number 2018YFF0300605]; and the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province [grant number 2020-MS-037].Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Availability of data and materialAll the data used in the analysis of this study has been provided in the form of either tables or figures included in this manuscript.Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [51502034, 51872042]; Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning province [2020-MS-037]; the National Key Research and Development Program of China [2018YFF0300605].Notes on contributorsTianxing GongTianxing Gong was an Associate Professor with the College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering at Northeastern University between 2014 and 2021. Since October 2021, he has become a tenured professor at Shenyang University of Technology. His research interests include osteochondral tissue engineering, nanoparticle synthesis, 3D bioprinting, ligament reconstruction and wound dressing development.Aoxiang ZhaoAoxiang Zhao received his M.E. degree in biomedical engineering from Northeastern University, Shenyang, China, in 2021. He is currently working as a software developer at Huawei Corp. in Shenzhen, China.Jingqiu ZhouJingqiu Zhou is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree at Northeastern University, Shenyang, China. Her research interests include osteochondral tissue engineering, nanoparticle synthesis, 3D bioprinting, and responsive hydrogel.Yadong ChenYadong Chen received a Ph.D. degree in manufacturing information science and technology from Northeastern University, Shenyang, China. He is currently an associate professor with the School of Electrical Engineering, Shenyang University of Technology. His research interests include biomechanics and 3D printing.He MaHe Ma received his Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore in 2014. He is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Medical and BioInformation Engineering, at Northeastern University. His research interests include medical artificial intelligence, medical VR/AR technology, and medical image processing.Xiangdong WangXiangdong Wang received his B.E. and M.E. degrees from Shanxi University and Beijing Sports University, China, in 1995 and 1999, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree of sports biomechanics from BSU in 2006. He is now a professor at the Faculty of Physical Education, Jimei University. He has published over 30 referred technical papers in journals and conferences of image/video processing, sport biomechanics. His research interests include sport image/video analysis, body posture detection and recognition, sport biomechanics. He is a member of the standing committee of Chinese Association of Sport Biomechanics.Yu WangYU WANG is currently pursing his Ph.D. degree at Shenyang Agriculture University, China. Since 2020, he has been a deputy chief physician at the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command, China. His specializations are sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery to treat athletic injuries on the shoulder, hip, knee and ankle.