Facilitating robot-assisted training in MS patients with arm paresis: A procedure to individually determine gravity compensation

Gravity compensation (GC) of the arm is used to facilitate arm movements in conventional therapy as well as in robot-assisted rehabilitation of neurologically impaired persons. Positive effects of GC on Range of Motion (ROM) have been demonstrated in stroke. In Multiple Sclerosis (MS), research rega...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bastiaens, H., Alders, G., Feys, P., Notelaers, S., Coninx, K., Kerkhofs, L., Truyens, V., Geers, R., Goedhart, A.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Arm - physiology
Correlation
Elbow
Female
Gravitation
Gravity
gravity compensation
haptic robot
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
multiple sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis - rehabilitation
Muscles
Paresis - rehabilitation
Read only memory
Robotics - instrumentation
Robotics - methods
Robots
Training
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Gravity compensation (GC) of the arm is used to facilitate arm movements in conventional therapy as well as in robot-assisted rehabilitation of neurologically impaired persons. Positive effects of GC on Range of Motion (ROM) have been demonstrated in stroke. In Multiple Sclerosis (MS), research regarding this topic is lacking. Since an active participation of the patient is required for effective training, full support of the arm might not be advisable. The present study reports on the development of a procedure to measure actively the individual need for GC and to estimate the influence of GC on ROM during reaching, lifting and transporting in severely affected Persons with MS (PwMS). Ten PwMS were tested with the procedure for determination of GC. Maximal reaching movements were performed in a 3D space in three conditions: No support (NS), with GC by the HapticMaster (GC-HM) and with GC by the HapticMaster combined with a sling suspension system (GC-HMS). For the total sample, significant correlations were found between the amount of GC and clinical tests for upper limb function. In four subjects with severe arm dysfunction it was found that mean ROM is larger in the GC-HMS condition compared to the GC-HM condition, and in the GC-HM condition compared to the NS condition, suggesting positive effects of GC on active ROM in PwMS. Therefore, GC could have a positive effect on arm rehabilitation by enabling the PwMS to actively reach a larger ROM during training.
ISSN:1945-7898
1945-7901
DOI:10.1109/ICORR.2011.5975507