A single task assessment system of upper-limb motor function after stroke

Abstract

Abstract. BACKGROUND: Nowadays, stroke is a leading cause of disability in adults. Assessment of motor performance has played an important role in rehabilitation for post stroke patients. Therefore, it is quite important to develop an automatic assessment system of motor function. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of the single task upper-limb movements quantitatively among stroke survivors. METHODS: Eleven normal subjects and thirty-five subjects with stroke were involved in this study. The subjects, who were wearing the micro-sensor motion capture system, performed shoulder flexion in a sitting position. The system recorded threedimensional kinematics data of limb movements in quaternions. By extracting the significant features from these data, we built a linear model to acquire the functional assessment score (FAS). RESULTS: All of the kinematics features have a significant statistical difference (P < 0.05) between patients and healthy people, while the feature values have a high correlation with Fugl-Meyer (FM) scores (r > 0.5, p < 0.05), indicating that these features are able to reflect the level of motion impairment. Furthermore, most samples of the linear model locate in the confidence interval after regression, with the residual approaching a normal distribution. These results show that the FAS is capable of motor function assessment for stroke survivors. CONCLUSION: These findings represent an important step towards a system that can be utilized for precise single task motor evaluation after stroke, applicable to clinical research and as a tool for rehabilitation.

Quantifying Pathological Synergies in the Upper Extremity of Stroke Subjects With the Use of Inertial Measurement Units: A Pilot Study

“…Several objective kinematic features have been shown to have a strong correlation with clinical scales [43], [44], [13], [40], [30]. The relation between the measures shown in the present study and the level of impairment, although it follows the theoretical aspects that qualify motor function in stroke patients, does not have a high statistical power due to the low sample size and the small range of impairment severity in the population.…”

“…The majority of studies use kinematic measures in activities of daily living or while performing functional tasks, such as reach-to-grasp tasks [39], [20], [13], [40]. Some studies used inertial measurement units while performing simple movements that include flexion/extension, abduction and supination of limb segments [30], [40]. In this work, a new distributed sensing system was developed and tested in an upper limb model, healthy and stroke subjects.…”

“…In this study, the only features used in the movement analysis consisted of joint angles. Several other types of features related to the movement profile can indicate the presence of motor function deficits, like movement smoothness and velocity profiles [43], [40], [30], [45]. These features were not explored, however, the data acquired allows for additional analysis.…”

Kinematic analysis of motor learning in upper limb body-powered bypass prosthesis training

“…While the functional and motor performance of other rehabilitation patient populations have been studied extensively (e.g. stroke [3][4][5]), the dynamic progress and motor learning of upper limb amputees has been relatively neglected. Meanwhile, an emergence of quantitative movement-based measures, enabled by motion capture technology, have gained popularity and have allowed for reliable study of movement and motor control.…”

Evaluation of Motor Function Rehabilitation for Stroke Patients Based on Magnetic Resonance DTI Technology

“…Studies have found that the partial anisotropy of the cortical spinal tract in the affected side after stroke has decreased, which is closely related to subsequent exercise recovery [14], [15]. It is proposed that the decrease in the anisotropy of the affected part after stroke is related to poor exercise scores [16], [17]. In addition, some studies have suggested that the degree of anisotropy reduction in the affected part of the early stroke can predict the degree of prognosis of the affected limb [18]- [20].…”