title: Robotic therapy for chronic motor impairments after stroke: Follow-up results.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the effects of robotic rehabilitation in persons with chronic motor impairments after stroke and to examine whether improvements in motor abilities were sustained 4 months after the end of therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pretest-posttest design.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rehabilitation hospital, outpatient care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Volunteer sample of 42 persons with persistent hemiparesis from a single, unilateral stroke within the past 1 to 5 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Robotic therapy for the paretic upper limb consisted of either sensorimotor active-assistive exercise, or progressive-resistive training during repetitive, planar reaching tasks, 3 times a week for 6 weeks.
  
  
  METHODS
  Modified Ashworth Scale, Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), Motor Status Scale (MSS) score, and Medical Research Council motor power score.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant differences were found among pretreatment clinical evaluations. Statistically significant gains from admission to discharge and from admission to follow-up (P<.05) were found on the FMA, MSS score for shoulder and elbow, and motor power score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Short-term, goal-directed robotic therapy can significantly improve motor abilities of the exercised limb segments in persons with chronic stroke that are sustained 4 months after discharge. This suggests that motor recovery can be enhanced by repetitive exercise training more than 1 year after stroke.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room 3-147, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. sfasoli@mit.edu
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Fasoli
authors.forename: Hermano I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Krebs
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: Walter R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Frontera
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Neville
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hogan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010291:Paresis / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D012371:Robotics / Q000379:methods; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D034941:Upper Extremity