Comfortably numb? Experiences of people with stroke and lower limb sensation deficits: impact and solutions.

Purpose: To explore personal experiences of loss of foot sensation following stroke in order to inform the focus of clinical assessments and development of a vibrotactile insole.

Methods: Qualitative design with an interpretive phenomenological approach to data collection and analysis. Eight community dwelling adults with stroke (>6 months) and sensory impairment in the feet participated.

Prediction of setup times for an advanced upper limb functional electrical stimulation system.

Introduction: Rehabilitation devices take time to don, and longer or unpredictable setup time impacts on usage. This paper reports on the development of a model to predict setup time for upper limb functional electrical stimulation.

Methods: Participants' level of impairment (Fugl Meyer-Upper Extremity Scale), function (Action Research Arm Test) and mental status (Mini Mental Scale) were measured.

A Three-Site Clinical Feasibility Study of a Flexible Functional Electrical Stimulation System to Support Functional Task Practice for Upper Limb Recovery in People With Stroke.

Of those people who survive a stroke, only between 40 and 70% regain upper limb dexterity. A number of reviews have suggested that functional electrical stimulation (FES) may have a beneficial effect on upper limb motor recovery. In light of the promise offered by FES and the limitations with current systems a new system was developed (FES-UPP) to support people with stroke (PwS) to practice a range of voluntary controlled, FES-assisted functional activities.

FES-UPP: A Flexible Functional Electrical Stimulation System to Support Upper Limb Functional Activity Practice.

There is good evidence supporting highly intensive, repetitive, activity-focused, voluntary-initiated practice as a key to driving recovery of upper limb function following stroke. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) offers a potential mechanism to efficiently deliver this type of therapy, but current commercial devices are too inflexible and/or insufficiently automated, in some cases requiring engineering support. In this paper, we report a new, flexible upper limb FES system, FES-UPP, which addresses the issues above.

A novel method of using accelerometry for upper limb FES control.

This paper reports on a novel approach to using a 3-axis accelerometer to capture body segment angle for upper limb functional electrical stimulation (FES) control. The approach calculates the angle between the accelerometer x-axis and the gravity vector, while avoiding poor sensitivity at certain angles and minimizing errors when true acceleration is relatively large in comparison to gravity. This approach was incorporated into a state-machine controller which is used for the real-time control of FES during upper limb functional task performance.