Applications
MyotonPRO can be used for both clinical and non-clinical purposes to assess superficial skeletal muscles, connective tissues such as tendons and ligaments and other soft biological tissues.
MyotonPRO provides objective information on the condition of muscles in several fields of medicine and sports as described below.
Clinical Medicine
MUSCULOSKELETAL REHABILITATION
After injury or surgery, a comprehensive musculoskeletal rehabilitation program is essential for patient recovery and prevention of re-injury.
MyotonPRO can be used as part of this rehabilitation program to monitor (visually and in real-time) the progress of interventions and rehabilitative treatments. This is important both for practitioners to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and make changes as necessary as well as to motivate patients. Objective results from MyotonPRO are particularly helpful when patients, such as children, have difficulty in communicating about their health.
NEUROLOGY
In the field of neuromuscular conditions, the assessment of muscle groups has been difficult and subjective. Even semi-quantitative clinical examinations, such as the modified Ashworth scale, yield clinician-dependent results with limited repeatability.
Use of MyotonPRO in these cases, will enable reproducible, objective and quantitative measurement results, providing superior information about conditions to clinicians and potentially complementary information for more accurate diagnosis.
OTHER AREAS OF APPLICATION
A number of clinical areas have been identified in which MyotonPRO could add value in the assessment of muscles or other soft tissues. These potential areas include better positions for surgical operations, prevention of falls in the elderly and monitoring soft tissue or muscle disorders and diseases.
Sports Medicine
Sports medicine is as much about injury prevention, as it is about maximizing training and competition performance. Finding the right balance between training and recovery can lead to better overall athletic outcomes.
MyotonPRO can help athletes and their trainers to understand better how their muscles respond to training programs. Being able to monitor changes in muscle and tendon condition over time enables athletes to avoid over-training, prevent muscle and tendon injuries and enhance overall performance.
Myofascia
Physicians are able to use MyotonPRO to assess patients before the treatment, measure the structural changes caused by Myofascial Triggerpoint Release as well as monitor the progress of the treatment over time. MyotonPRO is highly accurate and reliable tool for obtaining objective numerical feedback on even the small changes in the myofascial state and biomechanical properties.
Occupational Healthcare
Occupational muscle conditions can be avoided, but once developed, are very difficult or even impossible to treat. There are some occupations where workers are forced to adopt uncomfortable working positions or where they are required to repeat specific movements over a prolonged period of time. This can lead to repetitive strain injury due to muscle overload, which can impair the employee's ability to work and potentially lead to their absence from work together with related financial consequences.
To avoid these problems, the employer should engage Occupational Physicians to identify, monitor and treat conditions before they develop or become pathological. MyotonPRO would be an invaluable tool for Occupational Physicians in the early detection of occupation-related muscle conditions.
Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary medicine is concerned both with prevention of injury in animals as well as the monitoring of their muscle condition over time. This is particularly the case in the equine field, where training, preventing injuries and rehabilitating are very important. Where race horses are concerned, poor training regimes leading to injury can be extremely costly to the owner.
MyotonPRO could play a key role in the equine medicine to help prevent injuries, monitor muscle / tendon condition and improve rehabilitation programs. The device could even be used to detect future problematic areas from any discrepancy in measurement results.
Space Medicine
In order to ensure safety and success of space missions, it is critical to preserve the health of International Space Station (ISS) crew members in zero-gravity environments. Physical exercise is the primary method of protecting the cardiovascular system, bone, and skeletal muscles of the astronauts; the main objective of which is to stabilize skeletal muscles known to show degeneration during long-term space flights.
MyotonPRO's measurement system could be developed to be operational in zero-gravity and give objective, non-invasive and quick measurements to astronauts on space missions in the ISS. It would also help to determine an optimal training load and provide objective feedback during such missions.
Research
The relevance of the biomechanical properties for determining the functional state of muscles has only recently been more clearly understood.
The MyotonPRO device enables researchers to quantify more objectively a unique set of parameters for the measurement of superficial skeletal muscles and tissues. This new set of information can help them to understand the how changes in muscles and tissues occur, including data that can help detect muscle disease at an early stage, so that more effective medical treatment can be given. Many potential fields of application still remain to be studied.
