Wearable Hybrid Strain–Myoelectric Sensing System for Machine‐Learning‐Assisted Sarcopenia Screening

The early screening of sarcopenia represents a critical clinical need amid the accelerating global aging population. Current diagnostic methods, relying on bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), handgrip strength testing, and other clinical examinations, depend on costly medical equipment and struggle to concurrently assess both muscle mass and strength. Herein, we propose a Wearable Sarcopenia Assessment System (WSAS), which employs an integrated hybrid surface electromyography (sEMG)‐piezoelectric strain sensing platform to synchronously capture electrophysiological signals and mechanical deformation signals during muscle contraction in handgrip tests (signal‐to‐noise ratio: 34.32 dB), and incorporates a CNN‐LSTM deep learning framework. This model was trained using nine physiologically relevant features (including root mean square (RMS), mean absolute value (MAV), and integrated EMG (iEMG)) extracted through feature engineering as prior knowledge. Validated in a cohort of 75 elderly participants, the proposed system achieved a screening accuracy of 99.85% with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.97. Shapley additive explanations (SHAP)‐based interpretability analysis further revealed that WSAS captures neuromuscular alterations associated with sarcopenia, including type II‐to‐type I muscle fiber transition and neuromuscular junction remodeling. These results demonstrate the potential of WSAS as a portable, low‐cost, and radiation‐free platform for early‐stage sarcopenia screening.

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Publication Details

Journal
Small Science
Published
2026-03-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/smsc.202500582
Primary Topic
Nutrition and Health in Aging
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Wearable Hybrid Strain–Myoelectric Sensing System for Machine‐Learning‐Assisted Sarcopenia Screening

Guanbo Min, Jing Chang, C. K. Li, EG Zhao et al.
Small Science
Nutrition and Health in Aging
article

Wearable Hybrid Strain–Myoelectric Sensing System for Machine‐Learning‐Assisted Sarcopenia Screening

Guanbo Min, Jing Chang, C. K. Li, EG Zhao, Weihua Tang, Zhiyi Gao, Yuer Liang, Tingyu Wang, Qianmei Sun, Zhiwei Wang, Kun Xu, Ke Wang
article en

Abstract

The early screening of sarcopenia represents a critical clinical need amid the accelerating global aging population. Current diagnostic methods, relying on bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), handgrip strength testing, and other clinical examinations, depend on costly medical equipment and struggle to concurrently assess both muscle mass and strength. Herein, we propose a Wearable Sarcopenia Assessment System (WSAS), which employs an integrated hybrid surface electromyography (sEMG)‐piezoelectric strain sensing platform to synchronously capture electrophysiological signals and mechanical deformation signals during muscle contraction in handgrip tests (signal‐to‐noise ratio: 34.32 dB), and incorporates a CNN‐LSTM deep learning framework. This model was trained using nine physiologically relevant features (including root mean square (RMS), mean absolute value (MAV), and integrated EMG (iEMG)) extracted through feature engineering as prior knowledge. Validated in a cohort of 75 elderly participants, the proposed system achieved a screening accuracy of 99.85% with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.97. Shapley additive explanations (SHAP)‐based interpretability analysis further revealed that WSAS captures neuromuscular alterations associated with sarcopenia, including type II‐to‐type I muscle fiber transition and neuromuscular junction remodeling. These results demonstrate the potential of WSAS as a portable, low‐cost, and radiation‐free platform for early‐stage sarcopenia screening.

Small ScienceVol. 6(3)
Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University (CN), Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems (CN), Beijing Chaoyang Emergency Medical Center (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
Nutrition and Health in Aging
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