Search

Physiotherapy exercises like extension, flexion, and rotation are an absolute necessity for patients of post stroke rehabilitation (PSR). A physiotherapist uses many techniques to restore movements needs in daily life including nerve re-education, task training, muscle strengthening and uses various assistive techniques. But, a physiotherapist guiding the physiotherapy exercises to a patient is a time-consuming, tedious and costly affair. In the paper, a novel automated system is designed for detecting and recognizing upper limb exercises using an RGB-Depth camera that could guide the patients to perform real-time physiotherapy exercises without human intervention. Hybrid deep learning (HDL) approaches are exploited for the highly accurate and robust system for recognizing physiotherapy exercises of the upper limb for PSR. As a baseline, a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) is designed that automatically extracts features from the pre-processed data and classifies the performed physiotherapy exercise. As the exercise is being performed, to extract and utilize temporal dependencies, architectures of recurrent neural network (RNN) are used. In the CNN-LSTM model, CNN derives useful features that are provided to LSTM thus increasing the accuracy of recognized exercises. To train faster, another hybrid deep learning model, CNN-GRU is implemented where a novel focal loss criterion is used to overcome the drawbacks of standard cross-entropy loss. Experimental evaluation is done using RGB-D data obtained from Microsoft Kinect v2 sensors. Dataset comprising of 10 different physiotherapy exercises were created. Experimental results have shown significant activity recognition accuracy with 98% and 99% for CNN and CNN-LSTM model respectively. CNN-GRU model is the best suitable architecture with 100% accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The basic functional assessment, on the basis of which rehabilitation programming is carried out in a patient after a stroke, consists in examining the efficiency of the upper and lower limbs, balance and i.a. muscle tension. Therefore, it is important to identify and understand the relationships between these basic data in order to make conclusions easier and to set good goals in rehabilitation.Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the relation between the assessment of the motor efficiency of the lower limb, measured Fugl-Meyer Assessment Scale (FMA) and the balance, measured Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and between the FMA and the assessment of muscle tone, measured modified Ashworth scale in chronic-phase patients after an ischemic stroke before and after a 6-week rehabilitation process.Material and methods: The study group consisted of 37 patients after stroke (post-stroke duration > 1 year). All patients were subjected to a double functional assessment. Main measures: motor function in the lower limb, balance and spasticity in the lower limb. Spearman correlation coefficients was used to identify and analyze the relationship between the FMA and BBS as an assessment of the increased muscle tone.Results: There was a highly significant p

PurposeThe Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) scale, which is widely used and highly recommended, is an appropriate tool for evaluating poststroke sensorimotor and other possible somatic deficits. It is also well-suited for capturing a dynamic rehabilitation process. The aim of this study was to first translate the entire sensorimotor FMA scale into Romanian using the transcultural and semantic-linguistic adaptations of its official afferent protocols and to then validate it using the preliminary clinical evaluation of inter- and intra-rater reliability and relevant concurrent validity.MethodsThrough three main steps, we completed a standardized procedure for translating FMA's official afferent evaluation protocols into Romanian and their transcultural and semantic-linguistic adaptation for both the upper and lower extremities. For relevant clinical validation, we evaluated 10 patients after a stroke two times: on days 1 and 2. All patients were evaluated simultaneously by two kinesi-physiotherapists (generically referred to as KFT1 and KFT2) over the course of 2 consecutive days, taking turns in the roles of an examiner and observer, and vice versa (inter-rater). Two scores were therefore obtained and compared for the same patient, i.e., being afferent to an inter-rater assay by comparing the assessment outcomes obtained by the two kinesi-physiotherapists, in between, and respectively, to the intra-rater assay: based on the evaluations of the same kinesi-physiotherapist, in two consecutive days, using a rank-based method (Svensson) for statistical analysis. We also compared our final Romanian version of FMA's official protocols for concurrent validity (Spearman's rank correlation statistical method) to both of the widely available assessment instruments: the Barthel Index (BI) and the modified Rankin scale (mRS).ResultsSvensson's method confirmed overall good inter- and intra-rater results for the main parts of the final Romanian version of FMA's evaluation protocols, regarding the percentage of agreement (≥80% on average) and for disagreement: relative position [RP; values outside the interval of (−0.1, 0.1) in only two measurements out of the 56 comparisons we did], relative concentration [RC; values outside the interval of (−0.1, 0.1) in only nine measurements out of the same 56 comparisons done], and relative rank variation [RV; all values within an interval of (0, 0.1) in only five measurements out of the 56 comparisons done]. High correlation values were obtained between the final Romanian version of FMA's evaluation protocols and the BI (ρ = 0.9167; p = 0.0002) for FMA–upper extremity (FMA-UE) total A-D (motor function) with ρ = 0.6319 and for FMA-lower extremity (FMA-LE) total E-F (motor function) with p = 0.0499, and close to the limit, with the mRS (ρ = −0.5937; p = 0.0704) for FMA-UE total A-D (motor function) and (ρ = −0.6615; p = 0.0372) for FMA-LE total E-F (motor function).ConclusionsThe final Romanian version of FMA's official evaluation protocols showed good preliminary reliability and validity, which could be thus recommended for use and expected to help improve the standardization of this assessment scale for patients after a stroke in Romania. Furthermore, this endeavor could be added to similar international translation and cross-cultural adaptations, thereby facilitating a more appropriate comparison of the evaluation and outcomes in the management of stroke worldwide.

The research paper presents the heterogeneous computing model for analysis & restoration of human walking deformity and posture instability. Gait‐related walking activities are very important for the analysis of postural instability, repairment of gait abnormality, diagnosis of cognitive declination, enhance the cognitive ability of human‐centered humanoid robot system, and many clinical diagnoses, for example, Parkinson, pathological gait, freezing of gait, etc. at an early stage. For experiment analysis, 10 different lower limb activities are being considered of healthy and crouch walking subjects. A total of 25 healthy and 10 crouch walk subjects are considered for experiment purposes of different age groups, sex, and mental status. To achieve this objective the pattern of 10 different rehabilitation activities are captured using RGB‐Depth (RGB‐D) camera and classified using heterogeneous deep learning models. Different deep learning models Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and CNN‐LSTM (CNN‐Long Short Term Memory) are used for the classification of these rehabilitation exercises. The RGB‐D data is obtained using a Microsoft Kinect v2 sensor on a 100 Hz sampling frequency. Experimental results have shown significant activity recognition accuracy with 96% and 98% for CNN and CNN‐LSTM models respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Medical Rehabilitation / Rehabilitacja Medyczna is the property of Medical Rehabilitation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Stroke is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality. Sequels deriving from this event may lead to motor disability and from mild to severe deficits. In order to better classify sensory-motor dysfunction, balance and ability to perform activities of daily living, quantitative and qualitative evaluation scales have been used. OBJECTIVE: To correlate the scales Fugl-Meyer assessment scale, Berg balance scale and Barthel index. Twenty subjects with sequel after a single, unilateral stroke in chronic phase (>6 months post ictus) were evaluated for about one hour. RESULTS: Barthel scale was statistically related to the total motor score of Fugl-Meyer assessment (r=0.597, p=0.005). The lower limb section at Fugl-Meyer had positive correlation with Berg scale (r=0.653, p=0.002) and with the balance section of Fugl-Meyer own scale (r=0.449, p=0.047). Both balance scales were correlated one with other (r=0.555, p=0.011). Statistical divergence appeared when Barthel's Index was correlated with Berg's Scale (r=0.425, p=0.062), and it is not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The use of both quantitative and qualitative scales was shown to be a good measuring instrument for the classification of the general clinical performance of the patient, especially when positively related joint evaluations are applied.O acidente vascular cerebral (AVC) é reconhecido como uma das maiores causas de morbidade e mortalidade. Seqüelas decorrentes deste evento podem levar a inabilidade motora e déficits leves a graves. Para classificar melhor a disfunção sensitivo-motora, o equilíbrio e as habilidades para as atividades de vida diária, escalas de avaliações quantitativas e qualitativas estão sendo utilizadas. OBJETIVO: Correlacionar a escala de desempenho físico de Fugl-Meyer, a escala de equilíbrio de Berg e o índice de Barthel. MÉTODO: Foram selecionados 20 sujeitos com sequela de um único e unilateral AVC em fase crônica (>6 meses pós ictal), que passaram pelas avaliações por cerca de uma hora. RESULTADOS: A escala de Barthel correlacionou-se com a pontuação motora total de Fugl-Meyer (r=0,597, p=0,005). A seção para membros inferiores de Fugl-Meyer teve correlação positiva com a de Berg (r=0,653, p=0,002) e com a seção de equilíbrio da própria escala de Fugl-Meyer (r=0,449, p=0,047). Ambas as escalas de equilíbrio tiveram correlação entre si (r=0555, p=0,011). A divergência estatística apareceu quando se correlacionou a Escala de Barthel com o índice de Berg (r=0,425, p=0,062), não sendo estatisticamente significativo. CONCLUSÃO: O uso de escalas quantitativas e qualitativas mostrou ser um bom instrumento de medida para a classificação do quadro físico geral do paciente, ainda mais quando são aplicadas avaliações em conjunto que se relacionam positivamente.

This paper proposes a first approach for the automation of the Fugl- Meyer assessment scale used in physical neurorehabilitation. The main goal of this research is to automatically estimate an objective measurement for five Fugl- Meyer scale items related to the assessment of the upper limb motion. An objective score has been calculated for 7 patients. Obtained results indicate that the automation of the scale can be a useful tool for the objective assessment of upper limb motion of stroke survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) scale, which is widely used and highly recommended, is an appropriate tool for evaluating poststroke sensorimotor and other possible somatic deficits. It is also well-suited for capturing a dynamic rehabilitation process. The aim of this study was to first translate the entire sensorimotor FMA scale into Romanian using the transcultural and semantic-linguistic adaptations of its official afferent protocols and to then validate it using the preliminary clinical evaluation of inter- and intra-rater reliability and relevant concurrent validity., Methods: Through three main steps, we completed a standardized procedure for translating FMA's official afferent evaluation protocols into Romanian and their transcultural and semantic-linguistic adaptation for both the upper and lower extremities. For relevant clinical validation, we evaluated 10 patients after a stroke two times: on days 1 and 2. All patients were evaluated simultaneously by two kinesi-physiotherapists (generically referred to as KFT1 and KFT2) over the course of 2 consecutive days, taking turns in the roles of an examiner and observer, and vice versa (inter-rater). Two scores were therefore obtained and compared for the same patient, i.e., being afferent to an inter-rater assay by comparing the assessment outcomes obtained by the two kinesi-physiotherapists, in between, and respectively, to the intra-rater assay: based on the evaluations of the same kinesi-physiotherapist, in two consecutive days, using a rank-based method (Svensson) for statistical analysis. We also compared our final Romanian version of FMA's official protocols for concurrent validity (Spearman's rank correlation statistical method) to both of the widely available assessment instruments: the Barthel Index (BI) and the modified Rankin scale (mRS)., Results: Svensson's method confirmed overall good inter- and intra-rater results for the main parts of the final Romanian version of FMA's evaluation protocols, regarding the percentage of agreement (≥80% on average) and for disagreement: relative position [RP; values outside the interval of (-0.1, 0.1) in only two measurements out of the 56 comparisons we did], relative concentration [RC; values outside the interval of (-0.1, 0.1) in only nine measurements out of the same 56 comparisons done], and relative rank variation [RV; all values within an interval of (0, 0.1) in only five measurements out of the 56 comparisons done]. High correlation values were obtained between the final Romanian version of FMA's evaluation protocols and the BI (ρ = 0.9167; p = 0.0002) for FMA-upper extremity (FMA-UE) total A-D (motor function) with ρ = 0.6319 and for FMA-lower extremity (FMA-LE) total E-F (motor function) with p = 0.0499, and close to the limit, with the mRS (ρ = -0.5937; p = 0.0704) for FMA-UE total A-D (motor function) and (ρ = -0.6615; p = 0.0372) for FMA-LE total E-F (motor function)., Conclusions: The final Romanian version of FMA's official evaluation protocols showed good preliminary reliability and validity, which could be thus recommended for use and expected to help improve the standardization of this assessment scale for patients after a stroke in Romania. Furthermore, this endeavor could be added to similar international translation and cross-cultural adaptations, thereby facilitating a more appropriate comparison of the evaluation and outcomes in the management of stroke worldwide., Competing Interests: RP (included in CWG) is employed by GFT IT Consulting, S.L.U., Barcelona area (Sant Cugat del Vallès), Spain. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Onose, Anghelescu, Ionescu, Tataranu, Spînu, Bumbea, Toader, Tuţă, Carare, Popescu, Munteanu, Collaborative Working Group and Daia.)

The responsiveness of the Action Research Arm (ARA) test and the upper extremity motor section of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) scale were compared in a cohort of 22 chronic stroke patients undergoing intensive forced use treatment aimed at improvement of upper extremity function. The cohort consisted of 13 men and 9 women, median age 58.5 years, median time since stroke 3.6 years. Responsiveness was defined as the sensitivity of an instrument to real change. Two baseline measurements were performed with a 2-week interval before the intervention, and a followup measurement after 2 weeks of intensive forced use treatment. The limits of agreement, according to the Bland–Altman method, were computed as a measure of the test-retest reliability. Two different measures of responsiveness were compared: (i) the number of patients who improved more than the upper limit of agreement during the intervention; (ii) the responsiveness ratio. The limits of agreement, designating the interval comprising 95% of the differences between two measurements in a stable individual, were - 5.7 to 6.2 and - 5.0 to 6.6 for the ARA test and the FMA scale, respectively. The possible sum scores range from 0 to 57 (ARA) and from 0 to 66 (FMA). The number of patients who improved more than the upper limit were 12 (54.5%) and 2 (9.1%); and the responsiveness ratios were 2.03 and 0.41 for the ARA test and the FMA scale, respectively. These results strongly suggest that the ARA test is more responsive to improvement in upper extremity function than the FMA scale in chronic stroke patients undergoing forced use treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To perform linguistic and cultural adaptation of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Physical Performance., Materials and Methods: The study for assessment of psychometric properties included 53 post-stroke patients with neurological deficit presented by hemiparesis of different severity. The patients were assessed twice: at admission and after 14 days of treatment and rehabilitation procedures. The Russian version of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Physical Performance was developed with consideration of language and cultural characteristics., Results and Conclusion: Results of assessment of psychometric properties of the Russian-language version show its high validity, reliability and sensitivity. The developed Russian-language version of Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Physical Performance is recommended for using by neurologists and rehabilitation specialists both in everyday clinical practice and in clinical studies of patients with post-stroke paresis. The results obtained in the study show necessity for pre-training of specialists who perform assessment of patients with post-stroke paresis using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Physical Performance.

Introduction. Cerebrovascular accidents represent a major cause of morbidity, mortality and disability in the adult population. After a stroke, many patients remain with a serious deficit including motor, sensory and balance, which affect their quality of life. To quantify these deficits, various tools have been created, such as the Fugl Meyer assessment scale (FMA). It was elaborated in 1975 by Fugl Meyer and his colleagues, who observed the fact that there was a lack of exhaustive quantification of recovery progress in patients who suffered a stroke. FMA is a valid, reliable, responsive, and widely used standardized observational rating scale with ordinal data that assesses the sensorimotor, balance, joint pain and joint motion impairment. Methods and material This paper is a try to extend the implementation of this scale in the inner neurorehabilitation units, considering literature related resources (some updated too), aiming to supplement the assessment tools bundle to be availed; this would facilitate more complete evaluated cases in clinical studies. The maximum score that can be achieved is 226 points. A particularity of this scale refers to the positive relation between functionality and its partial and global scores, but regarding pain too but obviously this is a negative item. FMA comprises five domains: sensorimotor functioning, balance, joint range of motion, joint pain. The rating is based on direct functional quantified observation of the motor performance at each item using a 3 point ordinal scale (0=can not perform, 1=performs partially, 2=performs fully). The time to be performed is about 45 minutes. Results Considering on one hand its above mentioned qualities, but on the other its rather chronophagic paradigm, we propose a splitting of its achievement in each tested by FMA patient of its specific measurement items between doctors and licensed kinesio-therapists - preliminary specific training based. In this purpose, we have initiated a detailed correspondence with the international professionals in charge of FMA use. Conclusions Pending on the outcome of the above mentioned correspondence, hopefully we could succeed in enhancing FMA application, but within a reasonable time frame within the clinical rhythm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to accurately evaluate the similarity of motions during daily rehabilitation training for stroke patients, this paper proposed a novel quantitative assessment method based on dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm. Firstly, the raw accelerometer signals were preprocessed to eliminate the noise. Secondly, the similarity between the accelerometer signals and four standard task templates was calculated respectively, and then the motion was recognized based on the similarity measurements. Finally, the corresponding quantitative assessment model was used to compute the result. The clinical experimental results showed that there were significant differences in the shortest path distance ( R value) of DTW between different tasks, and the classification accuracy could be up to 91% when the R value was selected as the classification feature. Additionally, with the process of rehabilitation, the R value decreased gradually, which means that the R value can be taken as the assessment index to evaluate the quality of designated tasks for stroke patients. It also indicated that the R value could be applied into the scene of automatic prescription generation and interactive gaming to determine whether it is needed to change the rehabilitation plan or adjust the game difficulty level, so as to implement the individualized rehabilitation services.

Stroke is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality. Sequels deriving from this event may lead to motor disability and from mild to severe deficits. In order to better classify sensory-motor dysfunction, balance and ability to perform activities of daily living, quantitative and qualitative evaluation scales have been used. OBJECTIVE: To correlate the scales Fugl-Meyer assessment scale, Berg balance scale and Barthel index. Twenty subjects with sequel after a single, unilateral stroke in chronic phase (>6 months post ictus) were evaluated for about one hour. RESULTS: Barthel scale was statistically related to the total motor score of Fugl-Meyer assessment (r=0.597, p=0.005). The lower limb section at Fugl-Meyer had positive correlation with Berg scale (r=0.653, p=0.002) and with the balance section of Fugl-Meyer own scale (r=0.449, p=0.047). Both balance scales were correlated one with other (r=0.555, p=0.011). Statistical divergence appeared when Barthel's Index was correlated with Berg's Scale (r=0.425, p=0.062), and it is not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The use of both quantitative and qualitative scales was shown to be a good measuring instrument for the classification of the general clinical performance of the patient, especially when positively related joint evaluations are applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balance problems are a major sequelae of stroke and are implicated in poor recovery of activities of daily living. In a cross-sectional study, using 50-channel event-related functional near-infrared spectroscopy we previously reported a significant correlation between individual balance ability after stroke and postural perturbation-related cortical activation in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the prefrontal cortex. However, the neural mechanisms underlying balance recovery after stroke remain unclear. Herein, we examined the cortical involvement in balance recovery after stroke by determining longitudinal regional cortical activation changes in patients with hemiplegic stroke. Twenty patients with subcortical stroke admitted to our hospital for post-acute inpatient rehabilitation participated in this study. Before and after intensive inpatient physical and occupational therapy rehabilitation, we evaluated cortical activation associated with external postural perturbations induced by combined brisk forward and backward movement on a platform. Postural perturbation-related cortical activation in the SMA of the affected and unaffected hemispheres was significantly increased after intensive rehabilitation. The increment of the postural-perturbation-related oxygenated hemoglobin signals in the SMA of the unaffected hemisphere was significantly correlated with the gain in balance function measured by the Berg Balance Scale. These findings support the conclusion that the SMA plays an important role in postural balance control, and suggest that the SMA is a crucial area for balance recovery after hemiplegic stroke., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)