title: The influence of different Lokomat walking conditions on the energy expenditure of hemiparetic patients and healthy subjects.
abstract: To determine the strenuousness and efficacy of therapy, the energy expenditure of 10 healthy and 10 hemiparetic subjects were measured while they walked on a treadmill that was combined with a robot-driven gait orthosis, the Lokomat, which physiologically exercises the legs of a patient on a moving treadmill. Subjects performed different Lokomat conditions after measurement of the baseline, i.e., standing in the Lokomat with 30% body weight support (BWS). Robotic strategies with a position control scheme used fixed gait patterns to produce the following conditions: walking with 100% BWS at a speed of 1 km/h versus 2 km/h and walking with 30% BWS at a speed of 1 km/h versus 2 km/h. Another robotic control option with a force control scheme allowed the force to be reduced on only one leg of the orthosis. In this option a reduction to 60% and to 0% assistance was tested. Oxygen consumption and heart rate were measured by a breath-by-breath respiratory gas analyzing system using standard open circuit methodology. The results for O(2) rate [ml/kg/min] indicate that: (1) walking in the Lokomat is not passive; (2) oxygen uptake is significantly increased due to an effect of loading during active stance phase; (3) speed is not a factor leading to increased oxygen consumption; (4) patients do not significantly increase their oxygen uptake due to the advanced force control scheme.
authors.affiliation: Neurologische Klinik Bad Aibling, Kolbermoorer Strasse 72, D-83043 Bad Aibling, Germany. CKrewer@schoen-kliniken.de
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Krewer
authors.forename: Friedemann
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Britta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Husemann
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Quintern
authors.forename: Eberhard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koenig
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009989:Orthotic Devices; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D010291:Paresis / Q000378:metabolism*; D012371:Robotics; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*