IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2023;31:2560-2569. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2023.3281409. Epub 2023 Jun 12.
Most stroke survivors have mobility deficits and show a pathological gait pattern. Seeking to enhance the gait performance among this population, we have developed a hybrid cable-driven lower limb exoskeleton (called SEAExo). This study aimed to determine the effects of SEAExo with personalized assistance on immediate changes in gait performance of people after stroke. Gait metrics (i.e., the foot contact angle, knee flexion peak, temporal gait symmetry indices) and muscle activities were the primary outcomes to evaluate the assistive performance. Seven subacute stroke survivors participated and completed the experiment with three comparison sessions, i.e., walking without SEAExo (served as baseline) and without/with personalized assistance, at their preferred walking speeds. Compared to the baseline, we observed increases in the foot contact angle and knee flexion peak by 70.1% ( ) and 60.0% ( ) with personalized assistance. Personalized assistance contributed to the improvements in temporal gait symmetry of more impaired participants ( ), and it led to a 22.8% and 51.3% ( ) reduction in the muscle activities of ankle flexor muscles. These results demonstrate that SEAExo with personalized assistance has the potential to enhance post-stroke gait rehabilitation in real-world clinical settings.
大多数中风幸存者都存在运动障碍，并表现出病理性步态模式。为了提高这一人群的步态表现，我们开发了一种混合式缆索驱动下肢外骨骼（称为 SEAExo）。本研究旨在确定 SEAExo 与个性化辅助相结合对中风后患者即时步态表现的影响。步态指标（即足接触角、膝关节屈曲峰值、时间步态对称性指数）和肌肉活动是评估辅助性能的主要指标。7 名亚急性中风幸存者参与并完成了实验，包括在他们的惯用步行速度下进行三次对照测试：不穿 SEAExo（作为基线）和不穿/穿个性化辅助。与基线相比，我们观察到个性化辅助可使足接触角和膝关节屈曲峰值分别增加 70.1%（）和 60.0%（）。个性化辅助有助于改善更受损参与者的时间步态对称性（），并使踝关节屈肌肌肉活动分别减少 22.8%和 51.3%（）。这些结果表明，SEAExo 与个性化辅助相结合具有在现实临床环境中增强中风后步态康复的潜力。
