Background: Prehabilitation delivered with advanced technologies represents a great chance for patients to optimize pre- and postoperative outcomes, reduce costs, and overcome travel-related barriers.
Objective: We aim to evaluate the effects of prehabilitation delivered with advanced technologies on clinically relevant outcomes among patients affected by musculoskeletal diseases and waiting for surgery.
Methods: We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PEDro, and CINAHL databases up to February 2, 2023.
Purpose: As the global population aged 60+ grows, ensuring mobility and independence for older adults is a critical public health goal. This paper examines barriers to life-space mobility in older adults and explores wearable lower limb exoskeletons (LLEs) and green exercise as innovative solutions.
Methods: Literature search and interdisciplinary expert input were utilized.
Objectives: To investigate how people post-stroke and healthy people experience the addition of semi-immersive virtual reality (VR) and optic flow speed manipulation while walking on a treadmill, and if optic flow speed manipulation could be used in rehabilitation to elicit changes in post-stroke gait biomechanics.
Methods: Sixteen people post-stroke and 16 healthy controls walked on a self-paced treadmill. After 2 habituation trials (without and with VR), participants walked 3 more trials under the following conditions of optic flow: matched, slow, and fast.
The global aging population faces significant health challenges, including an increasing vulnerability to disability due to natural aging processes. Wearable lower limb exoskeletons (LLEs) have emerged as a promising solution to enhance physical function in older individuals. This systematic review synthesizes the use of LLEs in alignment with the WHO's healthy aging vision, examining their impact on intrinsic capacities and functional abilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This review assesses the effect of electrotherapy (e.g. functional electrical stimulation (FES), motor and sensor therapeutic electrical stimulation (TES)) on muscle strength and skeletal muscle characteristics in individuals post-stroke compared to conventional or sham therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImplicit motor sequence learning (IMSL) is a cognitive function that is known to be associated with impaired motor function in Parkinson's disease (PD). We previously reported positive effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) on IMSL in 11 individuals with PD with mild cognitive impairments (MCI), with the largest effects occurring during reacquisition. In the present study, we included 35 individuals with PD, with (n = 15) and without MCI (n = 20), and 35 age- and sex-matched controls without PD, with (n = 13) and without MCI (n = 22).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe integration of Deep Learning (DL) models with the HoloLens2 Augmented Reality (AR) headset has enormous potential for real-time AR medical applications. Currently, most applications execute the models on an external server that communicates with the headset via Wi-Fi. This client-server architecture introduces undesirable delays and lacks reliability for real-time applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConventional transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) delivered to the primary motor cortex (M1) has been shown to enhance implicit motor sequence learning (IMSL). Conventional tDCS targets M1 but also the motor association cortices (MAC), making the precise contribution of these areas to IMSL presently unclear. We aimed to address this issue by comparing conventional tDCS of M1 and MAC to 4 * 1 high-definition (HD) tDCS, which more focally targets M1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The increasing prevalence of knee osteoarthritis and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) impose a significant socioeconomic burden in developed and developing countries. Prehabilitation (rehabilitation in the weeks immediately before surgery) may be crucial to prepare patients for surgery improving outcomes and reducing assistance costs. Moreover, considering the progress of telemedicine, candidates for TKA could potentially benefit from a tele-prehabilitation programme.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Optic flow-the apparent visual motion experienced while moving-is absent during treadmill walking. With virtual reality (VR), optic flow can be controlled to mediate alterations in human walking. The aim of this study was to investigate (1) the effects of fully immersive VR and optic flow speed manipulation on gait biomechanics, simulator sickness, and enjoyment in people post-stroke and healthy people, and (2) the effects of the level of immersion on optic flow speed and sense of presence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe implementation of technology in healthcare shows promising results and provides new opportunities in rehabilitation. However, the adoption of technology into daily care is largely dependent on the acceptance rate of end-users. This study aims to gather information from healthcare professionals on the development of new assistive technology that match users' needs using the Comprehensive Assistive Technology model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Rehabilitation is important in the first months after a stroke for recovery of functional ability, but it is also challenging, since distinct recovery trajectories are seen. Therefore, studying the early changes in muscle characteristics over time (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Guidelines regarding physical therapy for COVID-19 patients are often based on expert opinion. Recent clinical trials have reported effects on several rehabilitation outcomes in COVID-19 patients. This review summarizes the effects of physical therapy in COVID-19 patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To prepare students adequately for the workplace, training on interprofessional practice should be included in the curricula of future health professionals. This study evaluated the effect of an interprofessional education session on undergraduate students' attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration.
Methods: A total of 225 medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, and nutrition and dietetics students were randomized to either an intervention (working together interprofessionally, = 111) or control group (working together with their own profession, = 114).
Objective: Various studies investigated implicit sequence learning in Parkinson's disease (PD) by means of the traditional motor Serial Reaction Time (SRT) task and found a general pattern of impaired sequence learning. However, as perceptual and motor sequences of the SRT-task were correlated in previous studies, implicit sequential knowledge acquisition that is tested independently from motor sequences remains to be determined in PD. In this study, we investigated implicit sequence learning independently from motor sequence learning in individuals with PD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImplicit motor sequence learning (IMSL) is a cognitive function that is known to be directly associated with impaired motor function in Parkinson's disease (PD). Research on healthy young participants shows the potential for transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a noninvasive brain stimulation technique, over the primary motor cortex (M1) to enhance IMSL. tDCS has direct effects on the underlying cortex, but also induces distant (basal ganglia) network effects-hence its potential value in PD, a prime model of basal ganglia dysfunction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Describe the relationship between the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale and Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) with balance performance, as well as fall status in patients with peripheral vestibular disorders.
Study Design: Retrospective.
Setting: Outpatient balance clinic, tertiary referral center.
Background: Simulation-based training has proved to be an effective teaching and learning approach in healthcare. Nevertheless, any assessment of its effectiveness should also take the students' perspective into account.
Aim: To validate the Satisfaction with Simulation Experience Scale (SSES) for use with midwifery students and evaluate midwifery students' satisfaction with perinatal simulation-based training.
Implicit motor sequence learning (IMSL) is affected in Parkinson's disease (PD). Research in healthy young participants shows the potential for transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) to enhance IMSL. In PD, only null effects have been reported to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn stroke rehabilitation there is a growing body of evidence that not all patients have the same potential to recover. Understanding the processes that give rise to the heterogeneous treatment responses in stroke survivors will lay foundations for any conceivable advance in future rehabilitation interventions. This review was set out to shine new light on the debate of biomarkers in stroke rehabilitation by linking fundamental insights from biogerontological sciences to neurorehabilitation sciences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng
January 2020
This study aimed to investigate: 1) the effect of optic flow speed manipulation on active participation during robot-assisted treadmill walking (RATW), 2) the influence of the type of virtual environment, and 3) the level of motion sickness and enjoyment. Twenty-eight healthy older adults were randomized in two groups: "stimulus rich" Park group (50% male, 61± 6 year) and "stimulus poor" Hallway group (43% male, 62± 5 year). Subjects walked in the Lokomat with immersive virtual reality (VR) with a matched, slow and fast optic flow speed, each lasting 7 minutes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF