Fransiska Bossuyt

• PhD
• Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of shoulder pain and to identify factors associated with shoulder pain in a nationwide survey of individuals living with spinal cord injury (SCI) in Switzerland. Methods: Data was collected through the 2012 community survey of the Swiss SCI Cohort Study (SwiSCI) (N = 1549; age 52.3 ± 14.8; 29% female). Sociod...

Elderly are confronted with reduced physical capabilities and increased metabolic energy cost of walking. Exoskeletons that assist walking have the potential to restore walking capacity by reducing the metabolic cost of walking. However, it is unclear if current exoskeletons can reduce energy cost in elderly. Our goal was to study the effect of an...

This study investigated the utility of a 5-min high-intensity exercise protocol (SAFT(5)) to include in prospective cohort studies investigating ACL injury risk. 15 active females were tested on 2 occasions during which their non-dominant leg was analysed before SAFT(5) (PRE), immediately after (POST0), 15 min after (POST15), and 30 min after (POST...

Understanding tendon mechanical properties, such as stiffness and hysteresis, can provide insights into injury mechanisms. This research addresses the inconsistency of previously reported in-vivo and in-vitro tendon hysteresis properties. Although limited, our preliminary findings suggest that in-vivo hystereses (Mean ± SD; 55% ± 9%) are greater th...

Objective The aim of the study is to investigate the association between adherence to spinal cord injury–specific physical activity guidelines in manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury and shoulder pain prevalence. Design This is a cross-sectional analysis of the SwiSCI Community Survey 2022 data, assessing aerobic activity and muscle str...

Objective The aim of the study was to evaluate determinants of between-person variation in shoulder pain (“yes”/“no”) in individuals with spinal cord injury living in Switzerland. Design This longitudinal study used data from the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort community surveys 2012, 2017, and 2022. Logistic regression analyses were used to ident...

Objective To investigate the association between propulsion biomechanics, including force application and spatio-temporal characteristics, and shoulder pain in persons with tetraplegia. Design Cross-sectional, observational study. Setting Non-university research institution. Participants 16 community dwelling, wheelchair dependent persons with a...

Shoulder pain is common in persons with spinal cord injury and has been associated with wheelchair use. Fatigue related compensation strategies have been identified as possibly impacting the development of shoulder injury and pain. The purpose of this study was to investigate the progression of performance fatigability (i.e., decline in objective m...

The rapidly evolving COVID-19 public health emergency has disrupted and challenged traditional healthcare, rehabilitation services, and treatment delivery worldwide. In order to help address the global unmet need for rehabilitation services, this perspective paper aimed to unite experiences and perspectives from an international group of rehabilita...

Measurement of in vivo strain patterns of musculoskeletal soft tissues (MSTs) during functional activities reveals their biomechanical function, supports the identification and understanding of pathologies, and quantifies tissue adaptation during healing. These scientific and clinical insights have motivated the development and application of vario...

Introduction Shoulder pain is common in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) and has been associated with wheelchair use. Previous studies identified fatigue related compensation strategies that could impact the development of shoulder injury and pain (Bossuyt et al., 2020). The aim of this study was to determine the presence of performance and p...

Introduction Shoulder pain is highly prevalent in persons with spinal cord injury (Liampas et al., 2021) and restricts daily mobility and thus participation and quality of life. Shoulder loading activities, such as manual wheelchair propulsion or transfers, are seen as risk factors for shoulder pain. To minimize the risk for shoulder pain, clinica...

Experimental observations and theoretical models suggest that the loading of muscular aponeuroses is complex, causing strain patterns that are not reconcilable with the frequently assumed mechanical “in series” arrangement of aponeuroses with muscles and tendons. The purpose of this work was to measure the in-vivo longitudinal strains of the distal...

Objective This study aimed to identify targets of intervention for reducing shoulder pain in wheelchair users with spinal cord injury (SCI) by (1) examining changes in subacromial space [acromiohumeral distance (AHD) and occupation ratio (OccRatio)] with fatiguing wheelchair propulsion, and different loading conditions [unloaded position vs. weight...

Objective This study aimed to identify acute changes in biceps and supraspinatus tendon characteristics before and after a graded exercise test to exhaustion (GXT) in highly trained wheelchair rugby (WR) athletes. A secondary aspect was to define chronic tendon adaptations related to the impairment of the athlete and the occupation of the tendon wi...

Objective To investigate the association between propulsion biomechanics, including variables that describe smoothness of the applied forces, and shoulder pain in persons with SCI. Design Cross-sectional, observational study. Setting Non-university research institution. Participants 30 (age: 48.6±9.3 years, 83% males) community dwelling, wheelch...

A quasi-experimental, pretest–posttest design. To identify acute changes in the supraspinatus and biceps tendon following fatiguing wheelchair propulsion and to associate tendon changes with risk factors associated with shoulder pain in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). Biomechanical laboratory Swiss Paraplegic Research. A population-based sam...

Objective: To examine if fatigue-inducing wheelchair propulsion changes neuromuscular activation and propulsion biomechanics and to determine predictor variables of susceptibility to fatigue. Design: This study with a quasi-experimental, one-group, pretest posttest design investigates a population-based sample of wheelchair users with a spinal c...

Objective: Shoulder pathology is a common condition in wheelchair users that can considerably impact quality of life. Shoulder muscles are prone to fatigue, but it is unclear how fatigue affects start-up propulsion biomechanics. This study determines acute changes in start-up wheelchair propulsion biomechanics at the end of a fatiguing propulsion p...

Introduction & objectives Fatigue is suggested to play a crucial role in the mechanism of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury [1]. This highlights the need for the inclusion of exercise-induced fatigue in prospective studies. Prospective studies give the highest level of evidence, but due to requiring large cohorts it is difficult to include a...

This study aimed to investigate the influence of simulated soccer match-play on markers of ACL injury risk related to knee and hip mechanics and isokinetic muscle strength imbalances. Eighteen male recreational soccer players completed a 90 min lab-based overground match-play simulation. Kinematics and kinetics of the support leg during unanticipat...

Context: Epidemiological observations of higher injury incidence during the later stages of soccer match-play have been attributed to match related exertion. Furthermore, a passive half-time interval has been suggested to impose an increased risk of injuries during the early stages of the second half. Objective: To investigate temporal changes in t...

Poster presented at ISB 2015 Glasgow