Development of a High-dorsiflexion Assistive System for Subacute Stroke Patients: Intervention Experiment on Healthy Subjects With Dorsiflexion Movement Restriction
A number of robotic ankle-foot orthoses with practical application for stroke patients have been developed in recent years. However, targets are mainly patients in the chronic phase. In this paper, we present development of a high-dorsiflexion assistive system aiming to support passive dorsiflexion movement in the swing phase for subacute patients in the early phase of gait rehabilitation. By applying a McKibben-type artificial muscle, output of high dorsiflexion torque with a low-weighted prototype was realized. This is expected to minimize loading burden on subacute stroke patients. An experiment on six healthy participants was conducted, and different extents of compensatory movements were applied when their dorsiflexion movements were restricted. The results of processed surface electromyography data significantly decreased when dorsiflexion movement was assisted with our system. Meanwhile, the results of spatial parameters also showed significant improvement of compensatory movement inclination with sufficient assistance. These indicate the potential of realizing assistance of passive ankle movements for patients with very low dorsiflexion abilities, which shows the potential for our future planning of practical pilot studies.
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Posted 15 Sep, 2020
Development of a High-dorsiflexion Assistive System for Subacute Stroke Patients: Intervention Experiment on Healthy Subjects With Dorsiflexion Movement Restriction
Posted 15 Sep, 2020
A number of robotic ankle-foot orthoses with practical application for stroke patients have been developed in recent years. However, targets are mainly patients in the chronic phase. In this paper, we present development of a high-dorsiflexion assistive system aiming to support passive dorsiflexion movement in the swing phase for subacute patients in the early phase of gait rehabilitation. By applying a McKibben-type artificial muscle, output of high dorsiflexion torque with a low-weighted prototype was realized. This is expected to minimize loading burden on subacute stroke patients. An experiment on six healthy participants was conducted, and different extents of compensatory movements were applied when their dorsiflexion movements were restricted. The results of processed surface electromyography data significantly decreased when dorsiflexion movement was assisted with our system. Meanwhile, the results of spatial parameters also showed significant improvement of compensatory movement inclination with sufficient assistance. These indicate the potential of realizing assistance of passive ankle movements for patients with very low dorsiflexion abilities, which shows the potential for our future planning of practical pilot studies.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13