title: Driving electromechanically assisted Gait Trainer for people with stroke.
abstract: Electromechanically assisted gait training is a promising task-oriented approach for gait restoration, especially for people with subacute stroke. However, few guidelines are available for selecting the parameter values of the electromechanical Gait Trainer (GT) (Reha-Stim; Berlin, Germany) and none is tailored to a patient's motor capacity. We assessed 342 GT sessions performed by 20 people with stroke who were stratified by Functional Ambulatory Category. In the first GT session of all patients, the body-weight support (BWS) required was higher than that reported in the literature. In further sessions, we noted a slow reduction of BWS and a fast increment of walking speed for the most-affected patients. Inverse trends were observed for the less-affected patients. In all the patients, the heart rate increment was about 20 beats per minute, even for sessions in which the number of strides performed was up to 500. In addition, the effective BWS measured during GT sessions was different from that initially selected by the physiotherapist. This difference depended mainly on the position of the GT platforms during selection. Finally, harness acceleration in the anteroposterior direction proved to be higher in patients with stroke than in nondisabled subjects. Our findings are an initial step toward scientifically selecting parameters in electromechanically assisted gait training.
authors.affiliation: Fondazione Santa Lucia-IRCCS, Via Ardeatina 306, 00179 Rome, Italy. m.iosa@hsantalucia.it
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iosa
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morone
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bragoni
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: De Angelis
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Venturiero
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Coiro
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pratesi
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paolucci
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001835:Body Weight; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D051346:Mobility Limitation; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D016138:Walking; D055815:Young Adult