One-year retention of gait speed improvement in stroke survivors after treatment with a wearable home-use gait device.

Background: Gait impairments after stroke are associated with numerous physical and psychological consequences. Treatment with the iStride gait device has been shown to facilitate improvements to gait function, including gait speed, for chronic stroke survivors with hemiparesis. This study examines the long-term gait speed changes up to 12 months after treatment with the gait device.

Gait Device Treatment Using Telehealth for Individuals With Stroke During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Nonrandomized Pilot Feasibility Study.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, rehabilitation providers and consumers adopted telehealth practices at unprecedented rates. Multiple prepandemic studies demonstrate the feasibility and comparable efficacy between in-clinic and remote treatment for certain impairments caused by stroke, such as upper extremity weakness and impaired motor function. However, less guidance has been available regarding gait assessment and treatment.

Continue Learning and Do No Harm.

In this issue of IEEE Pulse, we explore the human interface of the microscopic with global systems. The parallels are as a Fibonacci fractal: Human beings are a scaffolding upon which microbiomes live, much like populations that live in the varying climates and geographies of the planet. As we advance technology for humanity, it is worth considering the impact of that interface.

Development of a Non-Invasive Blink Reflexometer.

Qualitative assessments of the blink reflex are used clinically to assess neurological status in critical care, operating room, and rehabilitative settings. Despite decades of literature supporting the use of quantitative measurements of the blink reflex in the evaluation of multiple neurological disorders, clinical adoption has failed. Thus, there remains an unmet clinical need for an objective, portable, non-invasive metric of neurological health that can be used in a variety of settings.

Vitamin C and E intake is associated with increased paraoxonase activity.

Objective: Paraoxonase (PON1), an esterase physically associated with high density lipoprotein, has been shown to inhibit atherogenic low density lipoprotein and high density lipoprotein oxidation. PON1 activity appears to be primarily under genetic control with some environmental modification and is a predictor of vascular disease. Vitamins C and E, dietary antioxidants, scavenge free-oxygen radical products that may depress PON1 activity.