Development of Multi-Array Electrode and Programmable Multi-channel Electrical Stimulator for Firing Trigger Point of Myofascial Pain Syndrome

Abstract: In this study, Multi-Array Electrodes (MAE) and Programmable Multi-channel Electrical Stimulator(PMES) were implemented for firing Trigger Points (TPs) of the patient with Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS). MAEhas 25 Ag/AgCl electrodes arranged in the form of array (5×5) fabricated with flexible pad, which are applicable tobe easy-attached to curved specific region of the human body. PMES consisted of 25 channels. Each channel wasto generate various electric stimulus patterns (ESPs) by changing the mono-phasic or bi-phasic of ESP, On/Off dura-tion of ESP, the interval between ESP, and amplitude of ESP. PMES hardware was composed of Host PC, StimulationPattern Editing Program (SPEP), and Multi-channel Electrical Stimulator (MES). Experiments were performed usingMAE and PMES as the following. First experiment was performed to evaluate the function for each channel of Sub-Micro Controller Unit (SMCU) in MES. Second experiment was conducted on whether ESP applied from each chan-nel of SMCU in PMES was focused to the electrode set to the ground, after applying ESP being output from eachchannel of SMCU in PMES to MAE.Key words: programmable, stimulator, trigger point, multi-array, multi-channel