Appeal No. 2001-0628
Application No. 09/118,665
and 71 depend), 75 and 88, relating to the gripping and bending
steps, to the limitations in claim 69 relating to the step of
simulating joint loading by applying a tractive force, or to the
limitations in claim 88 relating to the step of positioning a
joint in a chamber of the imaging unit by maintaining the imaging
unit stationary and moving the patient along the upright central
axis of the unit. The examiner’s reliance on Shellock, Captain
Plastic and/or Cook to cure these shortcomings in Knuttel is not
well founded.
Shellock discloses the practice of using kinematic MRI
techniques on patients in prone or supine positions to analyze
knee joints flexed through a specific range of motion.
The Captain Jack flyers broadly, and somewhat ambiguously,
disclose positioning devices for use in kinematic MRI studies of
wrists, ankles and knees. The letter to which the brochures are
appended suggests that these positioning devices would be used on
patients lying in prone or supine positions.
Cook discloses a method of assessing the physiological state
of body joint by moving the joint against resistance through a
range of motion and measuring electrical activity in the muscles
controlling the joint. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, an exemplary
embodiment of this method involves a cradle 1 into which the
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