Ryali Partha, Wilson Valentino, Celian Courtney, Srivatsa Adith V, Ghani Yaseen, Lentz Jeremy, Patton James
Neuro-Machine Interaction Lab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
Robotics Lab, Center for Neuroplasticity, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, IL, United States.
Front Robot AI. 2024 Jul 10;11:1387177. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2024.1387177. eCollection 2024.
Wearable ExoNETs offer a novel, wearable solution to support and facilitate upper extremity gravity compensation in healthy, unimpaired individuals. In this study, we investigated the safety and feasibility of gravity compensating ExoNETs on 10 healthy, unimpaired individuals across a series of tasks, including activities of daily living and resistance exercises. The direct muscle activity and kinematic effects of gravity compensation were compared to a sham control and no device control. Mixed effects analysis revealed significant reductions in muscle activity at the biceps, triceps and medial deltoids with effect sizes of -3.6%, -4.5%, and -7.2% rmsMVC, respectively, during gravity support. There were no significant changes in movement kinematics as evidenced by minimal change in coverage metrics at the wrist. These findings reveal the potential for the ExoNET to serve as an alternative to existing bulky and encumbering devices in post-stroke rehabilitation settings and pave the way for future clinical trials.
可穿戴式外骨骼神经肌肉电刺激系统（Wearable ExoNETs）为健康、未受损个体提供了一种新颖的可穿戴解决方案，以支持和促进上肢重力补偿。在本研究中，我们对10名健康、未受损个体在一系列任务（包括日常生活活动和抗阻训练）中使用重力补偿外骨骼神经肌肉电刺激系统的安全性和可行性进行了研究。将重力补偿的直接肌肉活动和运动学效应与假对照和无设备对照进行了比较。混合效应分析显示，在重力支持期间，肱二头肌、肱三头肌和三角肌内侧的肌肉活动显著降低，均方根肌电活动峰值（rmsMVC）的效应大小分别为-3.6%、-4.5%和-7.2%。手腕处覆盖指标的微小变化表明运动学没有显著变化。这些发现揭示了外骨骼神经肌肉电刺激系统在中风后康复环境中作为现有笨重且累赘设备替代品的潜力，并为未来的临床试验铺平了道路。
