JNER: Clinical validation of kinematic evaluation of upper limb movement after stroke using multi-joint arm exoskeleton

At present, most stroke patients cannot recover all the functions of their paralyzed upper limbs

There are a wide variety of kinematic parameters used for upper limb evaluation, such as movement accuracy, efficacy, planning, precision, smoothness, speed, spatial and temporal posture; some of them are also related to the measurement of clinical outcome after stroke, and the upper limb Fugl-Meyer assessment ( UE-FMA) scale is most commonly used to assess the level of clinical damage

Nineteen stroke patients were recruited, and the patients presented with severe and persistent hemiplegia (13 cases on the right side, 6 cases on the left side; 11 cases of ischemic, 8 cases of hemorrhage), and provided written informed consent

Five assessment tasks performed by subjects with exoskeletons 

A commercial (Armeo Spring, Hocoma, Volketswil, Switzerland) rehabilitation exoskeleton is used, with separate shoulder (arm rotation, arm elevation), elbow (FE) and wrist joints (FE, pronation/supination) The sensor provides gravity balance support for the paralyzed arm, and records kinematics and grip strength at the same time

Box plot of patient kinematic evaluation results (FE: flexion/extension, IER: internal/external rotation)

The patient is easy to get used to the clinic, and there is no adverse reaction

Kinematic data

This method differs from most previous work in this field in that it uses an independent assessment task that is separated from rehabilitation training on the same equipment to avoid sport-specific learning effects

Grimm, F.