Robotic gait rehabilitation and substitution devices in neurological disorders: where are we now?

Gait abnormalities following neurological disorders are often disabling, negatively affecting patients' quality of life. Therefore, regaining of walking is considered one of the primary objectives of the rehabilitation process. To overcome problems related to conventional physical therapy, in the last years there has been an intense technological development of robotic devices, and robotic rehabilitation has proved to play a major role in improving one's ability to walk.

Automatic brain matter segmentation of computed tomography images using a statistical model: A tool to gain working time!

Brain computed tomography (CT) is useful diagnostic tool for the evaluation of several neurological disorders due to its accuracy, reliability, safety and wide availability. In this field, a potentially interesting research topic is the automatic segmentation and recognition of medical regions of interest (ROIs). Herein, we propose a novel automated method, based on the use of the active appearance model (AAM) for the segmentation of brain matter in CT images to assist radiologists in the evaluation of the images.

Tele-health services for the elderly: A novel southern Italy family needs-oriented model.

Introduction: The world population is aging. By 2050, the global population aged over 65 years will have doubled, leading to big societal challenges for ensuring healthy, independent, and productive lives for older people. Thus, innovative local and national initiatives for e-health services are growing in an attempt to overcome such problems.

Robotic neurorehabilitation in patients with chronic stroke: psychological well-being beyond motor improvement.

Although gait abnormality is one of the most disabling events following stroke, cognitive, and psychological impairments can be devastating. The Lokomat is a robotic that has been used widely for gait rehabilitation in several movement disorders, especially in the acute and subacute phases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of gait robotic rehabilitation in patients affected by chronic stroke.

Should individuals with chronic aphasia be treated with dedicated PC-based training? Considerations about a case study.

Objective: Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of an emerging rehabilitative tool ("Power-AFA" - software) in the recovery of a patient with chronic non-fluent aphasia.

Material And Methods: A 56-year-old woman, affected by post-stroke severe expressive aphasia, underwent two different intensive rehabilitation trainings, including either standard language rehabilitation alone or a proper PC based speech training in addition to conventional treatment. We evaluated her cognitive and psychological profile in two separate sessions, before and after the two different trainings, by using a proper psychometric battery, to assess cognitive status, language abilities, and to estimate the presence of mood alterations and coping strategies.

Elman neural network for the early identification of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease.

Early detection of dementia can be useful to delay progression of the disease and to raise awareness of the condition. Alterations in temporal and spatial EEG markers have been found in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Herein, we propose an automatic recognition method of cognitive impairment evaluation based on EEG analysis using an artificial neural network (ANN) combined with a genetic algorithm (GA).