Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Many researches have been conducted inorder to explore the ingredients of joint impairements like muscle spasticity and joint rigidity in which mechanical viscoelastic properties have been quantified during the joint movement. The aim of this study was to explore passive viscose and elastic properties at flexion and extension of the human elbow joint and to determine a mathematical torque-angle relation for the measured torque.

Methods: The method of this study was descriptive-analysis. Passive resistant torque was measured for 5 healthy subjects by Continues Passive Motion (CPM) at four different velocities for full range of extension and flexion by an isokinetic dynamometer. To extract viscose and elastic properties of the passive resistant torques of flexion and extension of the elbow, measures were extracted using MATLAB-R2009 software and statistical analyses were done by SPSS version 16.

Results: The results showed 3 total slopes of the passive torque curves by increasing the velocity of movement and also greater slope at the beginning and the end range of passive torque curves appeared in both extension and flexion. I It seemed to be a nonlinear relation and depending on elastic and viscose properties on angular movement and velocity at the passive torques.

Conclusions: Viscose and elastic properties were dependent on velocity and movement of muscle-tendon unit. Finally it was concluded from this study the possibility of evaluation and analysis the mechanical function of spanning tissues using a simple torque-angle relation for the passive torques with assumption of linear dependency on elastic and viscose properties and independency of viscose properties on angular movement.