Abstract
Background: Aging societies lead to higher demand for gait rehabilitation as age-related neurological disorders such as stroke increase. Since conventional methods for gait rehabilitation are physically and economically burdensome, robotic gait training systems have been studied and commercialized, many of which provided movements confined in the sagittal plane. For better outcomes of gait rehabilitation with more natural gait patterns, however, it is desirable to provide pelvic movements in the transverse plane. In this study, a robotic gait training system capable of pelvic motions in the transverse plane was used to evaluated the effect of the pelvic motions on stroke patients. Method: Healbot T, which is a robotic gait training system and capable of providing pelvic movements in the transverse plane as well as flexion/extension of the hip and knee joints and adduction/abduction of the hip joints, is introduced and used to evaluate the effect of the pelvic movement on gait training of stroke patients.Experiment: 23 stroke patients with hemiparesis participated in this study and were assigned into two groups. Pelvis-on group was provided with pelvic motions whereas no pelvic movement was allowed for pelvis-off group during 10 sessions of gait trainings in Healbot T. EMG signals and interaction forces as well as the joint angles of the robot were measured. Gait parameters such as stride length, gait period, cadence, and walking speed were measured after gait training. Result: 37.5 % lower interaction forces of pelvis were observed in the pelvis-on group than the pelvis-off group. Furthermore, the interaction forces at the thighs and calves of both groups showed significant decrease. The EMG signals of gluteus medius of the pelvis-on group increased by 77.2 %. Furthermore, statistically significant increases in various muscles were measured in the pelvis-on group during the stance phase. Conclusion: Gait training using a robotic gait training system with pelvic movements was conducted to study the effects of lateral and rotational pelvic movements in gait training of stroke patients. The pelvic movements made gait training less interfered by the exoskeleton while stimulating the voluntary muscle activation during the stance phase. Clinical trial registration: KCT0003762, 2018-1254, Registered 28 October 2018, https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/search_result_st01_kren.jsp?seq=14310
Real-time biofeedback device for gait rehabilitation of post-stroke patients
