Guidali
Fakultäten » Medizinische Fakultät » Universitätsklinik Balgrist und Schweizerisches Paraplegikerzentrum » Paraplegikerzentrum » Prof. Dr. Armin Curt » Guidali
Current research project
| Title / Titel | Functional recovery in stroke patients with task-specific robot-aided arm therapy. | ||||||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | The overall goal of this prospective, controlled, and randomized study is to determine whether task-oriented, robot-aided therapy is more effective than conventional therapy at promoting functional recovery of the affected arm of chronic hemiparetic stroke patients. Robotic therapy will be performed with ARMin, which is a robotic arm exoskeleton developed by R. Riener and his group in cooperation with members of the Balgrist hospital that permits 3D movements of both proximal and distal arm joints. Combined with an audiovisual display, this device allows virtual training of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and therapeutic gaming. A patient-responsive controller enables the assistance of the device only as needed. Four robotic systems will be available at the start of the project. The project will start with a short technical adaptation phase (first half year), where the existing platforms will be optimized to allow simulation of ADL tasks. A simple pneumatic hand actuation module will be added to support opening and closing the hand. The extended systems will be delivered to the project partners Spinal Cord Injury Center (Balgrist University Hospital), the Neurological Clinic (University Hospital Zurich), Reha Rheinfelden, and Zürcher Höhenklinik Wald. For the remaining 2.5 years the groups will perform the clinical study with chronic stroke patients (>6 months post stroke). In total, 88 patients will be randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. The experimental group will perform task-related intensive therapy with the support of ARMin. Therapists will treat the patients of the control group with standard motor relearning therapy. The patients of both groups will be trained for eight weeks, three times per week, with one hour allocated for each training session. Outcome measures will be obtained prior to, during and after the training phase by a blinded therapist. Primary outcome measures will be the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), the Motor Activity Log (MAL), and the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) in order to evaluate task-oriented function of the affected arm and its daily use in the real word. Secondary outcome measures will be the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) and the modified Ashworth Score (mAS) in order to assess motor impairment of the affected arm. Using the measurement functionality of ARMin, further information will be obtained including data on abnormal joint synergies, active range of motion (ROM), muscle strength, and spatial precision of hand positioning. | ||||||||
| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | rehabilitation after stroke; task orientated robot-aided therapy; functional recovery of affected arm | ||||||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
SNF (Personen- und Projektförderung) |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Jan 2008 to Dec 2012 |