Abstract
Background: Restoration of the efficacy of the paretic leg and compensation in the nonparetic leg can both contribute to improved balance maintenance during stroke recovery. This study presents a new approach to differentiate between both by quantifying the contribution of the paretic and nonparetic leg to balance control.
Methods: 8 chronic stroke patients participated in the study. Balance responses were elicited by continuous platform movements (forward-backward) that consisted of a multisine signal. Body sway as well as the ground reaction forces of each foot was measured. Based on the system-identification technique, the relative contribution per leg to the total amount of generated corrective torque to correct body sway and maintain balance was calculated.
Results: All patients showed a relatively smaller balance contribution of the paretic leg (P < 0.05). This asymmetry did not correspond to the asymmetryin weightbearing. The balance contribution of the paretic leg was consistently smaller than its contribution to weightbearing but showed no correlation.
Conclusion: The presented approach objectively quantifies the contribution of each leg to overall balance maintenance. Application of this method in longitudinal surveys of balance rehabilitation in stroke patients makes it possible to differentiate between restoration of the affected leg and compensation in the unaffected leg. Such insights will be critical for the development and evaluation of rehabilitation strategies.
Methods: 8 chronic stroke patients participated in the study. Balance responses were elicited by continuous platform movements (forward-backward) that consisted of a multisine signal. Body sway as well as the ground reaction forces of each foot was measured. Based on the system-identification technique, the relative contribution per leg to the total amount of generated corrective torque to correct body sway and maintain balance was calculated.
Results: All patients showed a relatively smaller balance contribution of the paretic leg (P < 0.05). This asymmetry did not correspond to the asymmetryin weightbearing. The balance contribution of the paretic leg was consistently smaller than its contribution to weightbearing but showed no correlation.
Conclusion: The presented approach objectively quantifies the contribution of each leg to overall balance maintenance. Application of this method in longitudinal surveys of balance rehabilitation in stroke patients makes it possible to differentiate between restoration of the affected leg and compensation in the unaffected leg. Such insights will be critical for the development and evaluation of rehabilitation strategies.
Original language | English |
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Article number | P4-036 |
Pages (from-to) | 216-216 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Journal | Neurorehabilitation and neural repair |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 13 Feb 2006 |
Event | 4th World Congress for NeuroRehabilitation, WCNR 2006 - Hong Kong, Hong Kong Duration: 12 Feb 2006 → 16 Feb 2006 Conference number: 4 |