• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.41-47
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• 2008

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of gait training with the use of an electromechanical gait trainer with functional electrical stimulation (FES) for patients that had undergone subacute stroke. Methods: The study subjects included nine subacute stroke patients of the Korea National Rehabilitation Center in Seoul, Korea. Outcome was measured using the timed Up and Go test, Fugl-Meyer-L/E assesment, with determination of the comfortable maximal gait speed, composite spasticity score, functional ambulatory category and Berg balance scale. All measured scores were recorded before, during, and after rehabilitation and at an eight-week follow-up. Results: Patients who received electromechanical-assisted gait training in combination with FES after subacute stroke were more likely to achieve independent walking, functional activities, balance and gait speed. Conclusion: The outcome of our gait-training program demonstrates that it may be practical to integrate FES into electromechanical gait training without any adverse effects. However, further randomized controlled studies are needed to evaluate if patient outcome after combined training is superior to outcome after the use of electromechanical gait trainer treatment alone or conventional gait training alone.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.32-39
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• 2021

Objective: The weakness of muscle strength due to stroke affects the posture control and gait in the patients with stroke. Stroke This study examined the effects of the stair climbing training with functional electrical stimulation on muscle strength, dynamic balance, and gait in individuals with chronic stroke. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Methods: Total forty-eight patients were randomly assigned to the 3 groups. Participants randomly divided to stair climbing training with functional electrical stimulation group (SCT+FES group, n=16), stair climbing training group (SCT group, n=16) and control group (n=16). Subjects in the SCT+FES group and SCT group performed stair walking training with and without functional electrical stimulation for 30 minutes, 3 sessions per week for 4 weeks and all subjects received conventional physical therapy for 30 minutes with 5 sessions per week for 4 weeks. Outcome measurements were assessed using the sit-to stand Test for strength, timed up and go test and modified-timed up and go test for dynamic balance, and 10m walk test and GaitRite system for gait. Results: In the SCT+FES group, subjects have been shown the significant increase in lower extremity strength (p<0.05), significantly improve in dynamic balance (p<0.05), and significantly improve in their temporal gait parameter (p<0.05). The SCT+FES group was significantly better than other groups in all parameters (p<0.05). Conclusions: This result suggested that the SCT+FES may be effective strategy to improve muscle strength, dynamic balance, and gait for individuals with chronic stroke.

• 대한물리치료과학회지
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.187-199
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• 1999

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is used for muscle reeducation, reduction of spasticity, delay of atrophy, and muscle strengthening. FES stronger stimulation than other forms of electrical stimulation. The efficacy of FES in improving function has been substantiated in the literature. Treatment programs employing FES - activation of muscular tissue through the intact peripheral nervous system - can be broken into five major categories, according to the goal of treatment. These broad areas would include the use of FES to: (1) a direct excitation onto the alpha motoneuron, through peripheral stimulation of the Ia myotatic sensory system and ascending afferent information, which will be integrated at conscious and subconscious level of the CNS. (2) The quality of a stimulated muscle contraction is determined by combination of many parameters, including stimulus amplitude, pulse duration, stimulus frequency, and duty cycle. (3) A unit that has a pulse duration between 200 and $400{\mu}sec$ will be more than adequate for FES applications. (4) The neuromuscular plasticity is critically important to return of function using muscle re-education and facilitation applications. (5) Prior to using FES as an electrical orthosis, the patient should build up endurance in the muscles to be stimu1ated during the gait cycle.

• 대한전기학회논문지:시스템및제어부문D
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• 제55권10호
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• pp.458-463
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• 2006

The purpose of this work is to investigate the fundamental properties of the gradual muscle force potentiation. We investigated the dependence of force potentiation on both the pulse-amplitude and the pulse-duration with different ramp-up time. The experimental results showed that the force increment ratio (FIR) during constant electrical stimulation decreased with pulse-amplitude and also with pulse-duration. The FIR was greater with short ramp-up time in both the pulse-amplitude and pulse-width modulation. The feasible mechanism might be that the myosin light chain phosphorylation induces the force potentiation and it occurs only in the fast type muscle fibers which are recruited first. These observations indicate that muscle potentiation must be understood well for the accurate control of muscle force.

• 대한물리의학회지
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.93-102
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• 2016

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the functional effects of action observation plus functional electrical stimulation (FES) treatment on the weight distribution indexes (heel and toe; right and left), stability indexes, gait velocities, and stride lengths of stroke patients. METHODS: The subjects, who were all more than six months post stroke, were randomly divided into two groups of ten each: an experimental group and a control group. TETRAX (Tetrax Interactive Balance System) and GAITRite (GAITRite$^{TM}$ computerized gait analysis system) were measured at baseline, six weeks after treatment. Participants in both the groups received functional electrical stimulation treatment, but the experimental group was provided with additional action observation. Independent t-tests were used to compare the differences between the groups, and repeated measured two-way ANOVA was used to compare the interaction between the groups. RESULTS: The result of the interactions between the groups and the periods showed significant increases in the weight distribution indexes (heel and toe; right and left), stability indexes, gait velocities and stride lengths (p<0.05). However, a comparison between the groups showed no significance in the weight distribution indexes (heel and toe), stability indexes, and stride lengths (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Action observation plus functional electrical stimulation treatment should be considered as a therapeutic method for physical therapy for stroke patients to improve the weight distribution indexes, stability indexes, gait velocities, and stride lengths.

• 대한의용생체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한의용생체공학회 1991년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.88-89
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• 1991

A method in order to restore the body movement by means of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) was considered. Multichannel EMG signals from a normal subject during the rolling-over motion were measured and analyzed. The results of the experiment indicated the synergetic role of the muscles during the desired motion.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.26-35
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• 2003

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.29-35
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• 2007

This study was designed to investigate the feasibility to utilize the electromyogram (EMG) for estimating the muscle torque. The muscle torque estimation plays an important role in functional electrical stimulation because electrical stimulation causes muscles to fatigue much faster than voluntary contraction, and the stimulation intensity should then be modified to keep the muscle torque within the desired range. We employed the neural network method which was trained using the major EMG parameters and the corresponding knee extensor torque measured and extracted during isometric contractions. The experimental results suggested that (1) our neural network algorithm and protocol was feasible to be adopted in a real-time feedback control of the stimulation intensity, (2) the training data needed to cover the entire range of the measured value, (3) different amplitudes and frequencies made little difference to the estimation quality, and (4) a single input to the neural network led to a better estimation rather than a combination of two or three. Since this study was done under a limited contraction condition, the results need more experiments under many different contraction conditions, such as during walking, for justification.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2008년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.649-650
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• 2008

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2011년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.1389-1390
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• 2011