Background: Robotics and related technologies are realizing their promise to improve the delivery of rehabilitation therapy but the mechanism by which they enhance recovery is still unknown. The electromechanical-driven gait orthosis Lokomat has demonstrated its utility for gait rehabilitation after stroke.
Aim: To test the efficacy of Lokomat in gait retraining and to investigate the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the recovery process.
Design: Case series study.
Setting: Unit of Neurorehabilitation of a University Hospital.
Population: Fifteen patients with post-stroke hemiparesis.
Methods: Patients underwent a six weeks rehabilitative treatment provided by Lokomat. The outcome measures were: Fugl-Meyer Motor Scale (FMMS), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), 10 metres Walking Test (10mWT), Timed Up and Go test (TUG), 6 Minute Walking Test (6MWT). Strength and Motor Unit firing rate of vastus medialis (VM) were analyzed during isometric knee extension through an isokinetic dynamometer and surface EMG recording.
Results: An increase of duration and covered distance, a decrease of body weight support and guidance force on the paretic side along the sessions were observed. The FMMS, the BBS, the TUG and the 6MWT demonstrated a significant improvement after the training. No increase of force was observed whereas a significant increase of firing rate of VM was recorded.
Conclusion: The evidence that the improvement of walking ability observed in our study determines a significant increase of firing rate of VM not accompanied by an increase of force could suggest an effect of training on motorneuronal firing rate that thus contributes to improve motor control.
Clinical Rehabilitation Impact: Given the current wide use of robotics in gait retraining after stroke, our approach can contribute to clarify the mechanisms underlying its rehabilitative impact so as to incorporate the findings of evidence-based practice into appropriate treatment plans for persons poststroke.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Mechanisms for dysregulation of excitatory-inhibitory balance underlying allodynia in dorsal horn neural subcircuits.
PLoS Comput Biol
January 2025
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Chronic pain is a wide-spread condition that is debilitating and expensive to manage, costing the United States alone around $600 billion in 2010. In a common symptom of chronic pain called allodynia, non-painful stimuli produce painful responses with highly variable presentations across individuals. While the specific mechanisms remain unclear, allodynia is hypothesized to be caused by the dysregulation of excitatory-inhibitory (E-I) balance in pain-processing neural circuitry in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe impact of genetic counselor involvement in genetic and genomic test order review: A scoping review.
Genet Med
January 2025
Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Women's Health Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address:
Purpose: The increasing complexity of genetic technologies paired with more genetic tests being ordered by nongenetic healthcare providers, has resulted in an increase in the number of inappropriately ordered tests. Genetic counselors (GCs) are ideally suited to assess the appropriateness of a genetic test.
Methods: We performed a scoping review of GC involvement in utilization management initiatives in order to describe the impact of having GCs involved in this process.
Background: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one of the typical complications of type 2 diabetes (T2D), with approximately 10 % of DKD patients experiencing a Rapid decline (RD) in kidney function. RD leads to an increased risk of poor outcomes such as the need for dialysis. Albuminuria is a known kidney damage biomarker for DKD, yet RD cases do not always show changes in albuminuria, and the exact mechanism of RD remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Optimal Dosage and Duration of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation in Heart Failure Management: Evidence from a Network Meta-Analysis.
Adv Nutr
January 2025
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK; Department of Psychiatry & Mind-Body Interface Laboratory (MBI-Lab), China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; An-Nan Hospital, China Medical University, Tainan, Taiwan. Electronic address:
Heart failure is a progressive condition associated with a high mortality rate. Despite advancements in treatment, many patients continue to experience less-than-ideal outcomes. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) have been studied as a potential supplementary therapy for heart failure, but the optimal dosage and duration of supplementation remain unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiological memory networks are thought to store information by experience-dependent changes in the synaptic connectivity between assemblies of neurons. Recent models suggest that these assemblies contain both excitatory and inhibitory neurons (E/I assemblies), resulting in co-tuning and precise balance of excitation and inhibition. To understand computational consequences of E/I assemblies under biologically realistic constraints we built a spiking network model based on experimental data from telencephalic area Dp of adult zebrafish, a precisely balanced recurrent network homologous to piriform cortex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!