Design and Validation of Biofeedback: Increasing Active Range of Motion of the Ankle

Stroke patients can have spastic paresis of the lower leg, impeding an ankle which hinders gait. A novel orthosis has been developed which counteracts this impediment to the ankle. It is expected that gait training will improve stroke patients' use of the orthosis by increasing their ankle dynamics. Gait training with biofeedback, which is based...

Applying Stretch to Evoke Hyperreflexia in Spasticity Testing: Velocity vs. Acceleration

In neurological diseases, muscles often become hyper-resistant to stretch due to hyperreflexia, an exaggerated stretch reflex response that is considered to primarily depend on the muscle's stretch velocity. However, there is still limited understanding of how different biomechanical triggers applied during clinical tests evoke these reflex...

Loss of selective wrist muscle activation in post-stroke patients

Purpose: Loss of selective muscle activation after stroke contributes to impaired arm function, is difficult to quantify and is not systematically assessed yet. The aim of this study was to describe and validate a technique for quantification of selective muscle activation of wrist flexor and extensor muscles in a cohort of post-stroke...

Development of an ankle-foot orthosis that provides support for flaccid paretic plantarflexor and dorsiflexor muscles

ADJUST, a novel ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) that we have developed, allows the ankle a normal range of motion (ROM) while providing support for flaccid ankle-muscle paresis. It consists of two leaf-spring hinges that independently control plantarflexion and dorsiflexion stiffness. To evaluate whether ADJUST meets the minimum mechanical...