scholarly journals Kinematic Analysis of the Upper Limb Motor Strategies in Stroke Patients as a Tool towards Advanced Neurorehabilitation Strategies: A Preliminary Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Aprile ◽  
Marco Rabuffetti ◽  
Luca Padua ◽  
Enrica Di Sipio ◽  
Chiara Simbolotti ◽  
...  

Advanced rehabilitation strategies of the upper limb in stroke patients focus on the recovery of the most important daily activities. In this study we analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively the motor strategies employed by stroke patients when reaching and drinking from a glass. We enrolled 6 hemiparetic poststroke patients and 6 healthy subjects. Motion analysis of the task proposed (reaching for the glass, bringing it to the mouth, and putting it back on the table) with the affected limb was performed. Clinical assessment using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Upper Extremity was also included. During the reaching for the glass the patients showed a reduced arm elongation and trunk axial rotation due to motor deficit. For this reason, as observed, they carried out compensatory strategies which included trunk forward displacement and head movements. These preliminary data should be considered to address rehabilitation treatment. Moreover, the kinematic analysis protocol developed might represent an outcome measure of upper limb rehabilitation processes.

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (02) ◽  
pp. 1650008 ◽  
Author(s):  
PIN-CHENG KUNG ◽  
CHOU-CHING K. LIN ◽  
SHU-MIN CHEN ◽  
MING-SHAUNG JU

Spastic hypertonia causes loss of range of motion (ROM) and contractures in patients with post-stroke hemiparesis. The pronation/supination of the forearm is an essential functional movement in daily activities. We developed a special module for a shoulder-elbow rehabilitation robot for the reduction and biomechanical assessment of pronator/supinator hypertonia of the forearm. The module consisted of a rotational drum driven by an AC servo motor and equipped with an encoder and a custom-made torque sensor. By properly switching the control algorithm between position control and torque control, a hybrid controller able to mimic a therapist’s manual stretching movements was designed. Nine stroke patients were recruited to validate the functions of the module. The results showed that the affected forearms had significant increases in the ROM after five cycles of stretching. Both the passive ROM and the average stiffness were highly correlated to the spasticity of the forearm flexor muscles as measured using the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS). With the custom-made module and controller, this upper-limb rehabilitation robot may be able to aid physical therapists to reduce hypertonia and quantify biomechanical properties of the muscles for forearm rotation in stroke patients.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Sik Choi ◽  
Kyeong Woo Lee ◽  
Jong Hwa Lee ◽  
Sang Beom Kim ◽  
Gyu Tae Park ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bai ◽  
Song ◽  
Li

In order to improve the convenience and practicability of home rehabilitation training for post-stroke patients, this paper presents a cloud-based upper limb rehabilitation system based on motion tracking. A 3-dimensional reachable workspace virtual game (3D-RWVG) was developed to achieve meaningful home rehabilitation training. Five movements were selected as the criteria for rehabilitation assessment. Analysis was undertaken of the upper limb performance parameters: relative surface area (RSA), mean velocity (MV), logarithm of dimensionless jerk (LJ) and logarithm of curvature (LC). A two-headed convolutional neural network (TCNN) model was established for the assessment. The experiment was carried out in the hospital. The results show that the RSA, MV, LC and LJ could reflect the upper limb motor function intuitively from the graphs. The accuracy of the TCNN models is 92.6%, 80%, 89.5%, 85.1% and 87.5%, respectively. A therapist could check patient training and assessment information through the cloud database and make a diagnosis. The system can realize home rehabilitation training and assessment without the supervision of a therapist, and has the potential to become an effective home rehabilitation system.


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