TY - JOUR
T1 - A proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation integrated robotic ankle-foot system for post stroke rehabilitation
AU - Zhou, Zhihao
AU - Zhou, Yuan
AU - Wang, Ninghua
AU - Gao, Fan
AU - Wei, Kunlin
AU - Wang, Qining
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 61005082 , 31000456 , 31371020 , J1103602 , 61020106005 ), the Beijing Nova Program (No. Z141101001814001 ) and the PKU-Biomedical Engineering Joint Seed Grant 2014.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/11/1
Y1 - 2015/11/1
N2 - Ankle joint with spasticity and/or contracture can severely disable the mobility and the independence of stroke survivors. In this paper, we developed a proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) integrated robotic ankle-foot system for post stroke rehabilitation. The system consists of a robotic platform and a control system with graphic user interface. We employ five normal subjects to test the reliability and feasibility of the proposed system. To validate the effectiveness of the PNF integrated robotic system, we recruit five stroke patients and carry out a six-week PNF treatment. Treatment outcome was evaluated quantitatively in passive and active joint properties. The passive hysteresis loop shows that the maximum dorsiflexion angle increases from 32.9°±1.5° to 42.0°±3.2° (p=0.014) while the resistance torque decreases from 45.6 Nm±5.8 N m to 29.8 N m±4.4 N m (p=0.019). The active joint properties are improved significantly with the training score increasing from 5.7±0.9 to 8.1±0.6, and getting close to that of normal subjects (9.5±0.3). In addition, muscle strength has a rising trend as time goes on. The results demonstrate that the proposed PNF integrated robotic ankle-foot rehabilitation system is effective in improving ankle spasticity and/or contracture and is a promising solution in clinical rehabilitation.
AB - Ankle joint with spasticity and/or contracture can severely disable the mobility and the independence of stroke survivors. In this paper, we developed a proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) integrated robotic ankle-foot system for post stroke rehabilitation. The system consists of a robotic platform and a control system with graphic user interface. We employ five normal subjects to test the reliability and feasibility of the proposed system. To validate the effectiveness of the PNF integrated robotic system, we recruit five stroke patients and carry out a six-week PNF treatment. Treatment outcome was evaluated quantitatively in passive and active joint properties. The passive hysteresis loop shows that the maximum dorsiflexion angle increases from 32.9°±1.5° to 42.0°±3.2° (p=0.014) while the resistance torque decreases from 45.6 Nm±5.8 N m to 29.8 N m±4.4 N m (p=0.019). The active joint properties are improved significantly with the training score increasing from 5.7±0.9 to 8.1±0.6, and getting close to that of normal subjects (9.5±0.3). In addition, muscle strength has a rising trend as time goes on. The results demonstrate that the proposed PNF integrated robotic ankle-foot rehabilitation system is effective in improving ankle spasticity and/or contracture and is a promising solution in clinical rehabilitation.
KW - Ankle rehabilitation
KW - Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation
KW - Robotic ankle-foot system
KW - Spasticity/contracture
KW - Stroke
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U2 - 10.1016/j.robot.2014.09.023
DO - 10.1016/j.robot.2014.09.023
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84940928678
SN - 0921-8890
VL - 73
SP - 111
EP - 122
JO - Robotics and Autonomous Systems
JF - Robotics and Autonomous Systems
ER -