Abstract

CHAVES, Justo; ESCOBAR, Sergio  and  TABERNIG, Carolina. Current source with high impedance output for functional neuromuscular simulations. Cienc. docencia tecnol. [online]. 2006, n.33, pp.195-206. ISSN 1851-1716.

Functional neuromuscular stimulation (FNS) is a rehabilitation technique which can be applied to people with motor control difficulties and it is employed to replace or assist a loosed o diminished motor function. It consists on the excitation of the healthy peripherical innervations by means of electrical pulses to perform muscular contraction. Systems that employ FNS have a constant current source at the output. These systems may be multichannel systems and they activate different motor groups through the application of active electrodes and only one indifferent electrode. This issue requires particular characteristics for the current sources. In this article we present the design of a constant current source to be employed at the output of FNS systems which give monophasic and biphasic stimulation pulses and their outputs maintain high impedance mine while they are not active. Results show that the current was constant facing variations in the output impedance and it presented a lineal relationship between the control input and current output. The design also gives the possibility of having biphasic pulses of different conformation at the output.

Keywords : Current sources; Functional neuromuscular stimulation; Design; Electronics.

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