Zong-Ming Li

Interests

Research

Carpal tunnel syndrome, Hand Arthritis, Musculoskeletal Imaging, Biomechanics and motor control of the hand, Neuromuscular control, Musculoskeletal Biomechanics and Rehabilitation, Biomechanics of shoulder arthroplasty, Biomechanical modeling, Biomechanics of orthopaedic implants, Experimental methods in biomechanics, Biorobotics, EMG, Finger coordination, Finger joint stiffness, Gait analyses, Hand biomechanics, Human motor redundancy problem, Human movement analyses, Ligament and tendon mechanics and mechanobiology, Mathematical (optimization) modeling, Molecular mechanisms of flexor tenosynovitis and ligament hypertrophy, Motion analysis, Musculoskeletal Ultrasonography, Neural network modeling, Neuromuscular control of hand and upper extremity, Neural rehabilitation, Posture and balance, Rehabilitation engineering, Shoulder biomechanics, Ultrasonic imaging, Wrist kinematics, Wrist morphometry

Teaching

Biomechanics

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Journals/Publications

• Alsafar, F., & Li, Z. (2021). Thenar and hypothenar muscle coverage on the transverse carpal ligament. Journal of Wrist Surgery. doi:10.1055/s-0041-1735887
• Jordan, D., & Li, Z. (2021). Cross-sectional changes of the distal carpal tunnel with simulated carpal bone rotation. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering.
• Jun, B., Ricchetti, E., Li, Z., & Iannotti, J. (2021). Validation of a 3-D CT Imaging Method for Quantifying Implant Migration following Anatomic Total Shoulder Arthroplasty. https://doi.org/10.1002/jor.25170. Journal of Orthopaedic Research.
• Li, Z., Daulat, S., Hawk, J., & Margolis, D. S. (2022). Dose- and time-dependent effects of collagenase clostridium histolyticum injection on transverse carpal ligament elastic modulus and thickness in vitro.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277187. PLOS ONE.
• Li, Z., Grandy, E. L., Jenkins, L., Norman, C., Bena, J., Hou, J., Evans, P. J., Seitz, W. H., & Kwoh, C. K. (2022). A preliminary study of radioulnar wrist compression in improving patient-reported outcomes of carpal tunnel syndrome https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-022-05943-0. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorder.
• Li, Z., J, Z., Y, X., N, W., L, L., & K, L. (2022). Reach-to-grasp kinematics and kinetics in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-022-01108-1. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.
• Nadeem, M., Li, Z., & Seitz, W. (2021). Functional wrist kinematics during activities of daily living. Journal of Hand Surgery.
• Shah, R., & Li, Z. (2021). Three-dimensional carpal arch morphology using robot-assisted ultrasonography. Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.
• Zhang, H., Loss, J., & Li, Z. (2021). Carpal arch changes in response to thenar muscle loading. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.
• Lakshminarayanan, K., Shah, R., & Li, Z. M. (2020). Morphological and positional changes of the carpal arch and median nerve associated with wrist deviations. Clinical biomechanics (Bristol, Avon), 71, 133-138.
  More info

  Carpal tunnel and median nerve dynamically change with wrist motion. The purpose of this study was to investigate the morphological changes and positional migration of the carpal arch and median nerve, as well as nerve-arch positional relationship associated with wrist deviation in healthy volunteers.
• Loss, J., & Li, Z. M. (2020). Biometry of thenar muscle origins on the flexor retinaculum. Clinical anatomy (New York, N.Y.), 33(8), 1176-1180.
  More info

  The transverse carpal ligament (TCL), the main part of the flexor retinaculum, serves as an anchor for the thenar muscles: abductor pollicis brevis (APB), superficial head of the flexor pollicis brevis (sFPB), and opponens pollicis (OPP). Biomechanically, the thenar muscles rely on their TCL anchoring to transmit muscle contractions distally for thumb force and motion production, and reciprocally, muscle contraction interacts with the TCL at the proximal end through the origins. However, scarce knowledge exists regarding the distribution pattern of the thenar muscle origins. The purpose of this study was to understand the anatomical interface between the thenar muscles and TCL by examining the origin distributions of the individual muscles. Ten cadaveric specimens were dissected for digitization of the muscle origins and TCL volar surface. Digitized data were used for mesh reconstruction and calculation of surface areas and centroids. The origin areas for APB, sFPB, and OPP were 105.8 ± 30.3, 64.6 ± 15.2, and 245.9 ± 70.7 mm , respectively. The surface area of the TCL was 386.2 ± 86.9 mm . The origin areas of APB and OPP on the TCL were comparable, 18.4 ± 4.8% and 17.3 ± 9.6% of the TCL area, respectively. The origin locations for APB, sFPB, and OPP were in proximal-radial quadrant of the TCL, on distal aponeurosis outside the TCL, and around the ridge of trapezium, respectively. The knowledge of the anatomical interface provides a foundation for the understanding of biomechanical interactions between the muscles and ligaments and pathomechanical implications.
• Shah, R., & Li, Z. M. (2020). Ligament and Bone Arch Partition of the Carpal Tunnel by Three-Dimensional Ultrasonography. Journal of biomechanical engineering.
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  The carpal tunnel is structurally complex and geometrically irregular due to the many intercalated carpal bones by numerous intercarpal ligaments. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relative contributions of the ligament and bone arches to carpal tunnel space at the proximal, middle, and distal tunnel regions. A catheter ultrasound probe acquired fan-like images inside cadaveric carpal tunnels for three-dimensional reconstruction of the tunnel. The total tunnel volume was 5367.6 ± 940.1 mm3 with contributions of 12.0%, 6.9%, and 4.1% by proximal, middle, and distal ligament arches, respectively, and 27.0%, 25.3%, and 24.7% by proximal, middle, and distal bone arches, respectively. The bone arch occupied more tunnel space than the ligament arch at all regions (p
• Yao, Y., Grandy, E., Evans, P. J., Seitz, W. H., & Li, Z. M. (2020). Impairment of median nerve mobility in the segmental carpal tunnel of patients with carpal tunnel syndrome. Muscle & nerve, 62(4), 522-527.
  More info

  The purpose of this study was to investigate in vivo median nerve longitudinal mobility in different segments of the carpal tunnel associated with active finger motion in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) patients in a comparison with healthy controls.

Presentations

• Alsafar, F., Shah, R., & Li, Z. (2021, February). Thenar and hypothenar muscular coverage on the transverse carpal ligament. Annual meeting of the Orthopedic Research Society (ORS), February 13-16, 2021, Virtual (Podium).
• Coleman, K., Li, V., Zhang, H., Kwoh, K., & Li, Z. (2022). Thumb Carpometacarpal Joint Laxity in Pre- and Post- Menopausal Women. 2022 Annual Meeting of Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS).
• Hawk, J., Zhang, H., Margolis, D., & Li, Z. (2022). In Situ Needle Insertion to the Transverse Carpal Ligament Using Robot-Assisted Ultrasound. 2022 Annual Meeting of Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS).
• Huo, J., Zhang, H., Li, Z., & Roveda, J. (2022). Segmentation of Transverse Carpal Ligament in Ultrasound Images Using Convolutional Neural Network. 2022 Annual Meeting of Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS).
• Jordan, D., & Li, Z. (2022). Cross-sectional Changes of the Distal Carpal Tunnel with Simulated Carpal Bone Rotation. 2022 Annual Meeting of Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS).
• Li, Z. (2022, June/Summer).

  Thumb Carpometacarpal Joint Laxity in Young and Postmenopausal Women

  . IFSSH, IFSHT & FESSH Combined Congress 6-10 June 2022. London, UK.
• Li, Z., & Zhang, H. (2021, Jun). Finite element analysis for carpal arch under varying thenar muscle force magnitudes and directions. Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering and Biotransport Conference (Virtual). June 14-18, 2021.
• Shah, R., & Li, Z. (2021, February). Three-dimensional carpal arch morphological analysis using robot assisted ultrasonography.. Annual meeting of the Orthopedic Research Society (ORS), February 13-16, 2021, Virtual (Poster). Virtual.
• Tamimi, E., Hawk, J., Witte, R., & Li, Z. (2022). Tamimi E, Hawk J, Witte R Li ZM, Load-dependent shear wave elastography of the transverse carpal ligament. 2022 Annual Meeting of Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS).
• Zhang, H., & Li, Z. (2021, February). Effect of musculoligamentous junction location on biomechanical interaction between the thenar muscles and transverse carpal ligament — a finite element study.. Annual meeting of the Orthopedic Research Society (ORS), February 13-16, 2021, Virtual (Poster).
• Zhang, H., & Li, Z. (2022). In Vivo Examination of Thenar Muscle Origins on the Transverse Carpal Ligament by 3-D Ultrasound Reconstruction. 2022 Annual Meeting of Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS).

Poster Presentations

• Li, Z., Tamimi, E., Hawk, J., & Witte, R. (2022). Load-dependent shear wave elastography of the transverse carpal ligament, February 04-08, 2022, Tampa, FL [Poster]. Annual Meeting of Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS).