A gait rehabilitation pilot study using tactile cueing following hemiparetic stroke

Recovery of walking function is a major goal of post-stroke rehabilitation. Audio metronomic cueing has been shown to improve gait, but can be impractical and inconvenient to use in a community setting, for example outdoors where awareness of traffic is needed, as well as being unsuitable in environments with high background noise, or for those with a hearing impairment. Silent lightweight portable tactile cueing, if similarly successful, has the potential to take the benefits out of the lab and into everyday life. The Haptic Bracelets, designed and built at the Open University originally for musical purposes, are self-contained lightweight wireless devices containing a computer, Wi-Fi chip, accelerometers and low-latency vibrotactiles with a wide dynamic range. In this paper we outline gait rehabilitation problems and existing solutions, and present an early pilot in which the Haptic Bracelets were applied to post-stroke gait rehabilitation.

[1]  M. Thaut,et al.  Rhythmic facilitation of gait training in hemiparetic stroke rehabilitation , 1997, Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

[2]  P. Beek,et al.  Gait Coordination After Stroke: Benefits of Acoustically Paced Treadmill Walking , 2007, Physical Therapy.

[3]  T. Wilsgaard,et al.  Walking after Stroke: Does It Matter? Changes in Bone Mineral Density Within the First 12 Months after Stroke. A Longitudinal Study , 2000, Osteoporosis International.

[4]  S. Olney,et al.  Hemiparetic gait following stroke. Part I: Characteristics , 1996 .

[5]  J. Eng,et al.  The relationship of lower-extremity muscle torque to locomotor performance in people with stroke. , 2003, Physical therapy.

[6]  Simon Holland,et al.  The Haptic Bracelets: Learning Multi-Limb Rhythm Skills from Haptic Stimuli While Reading , 2013, Music and Human-Computer Interaction.

[7]  F. Zajac,et al.  Gait differences between individuals with post-stroke hemiparesis and non-disabled controls at matched speeds. , 2005, Gait & posture.

[8]  J. Czerniecki,et al.  The prevalence of knee pain and symptomatic knee osteoarthritis among veteran traumatic amputees and nonamputees. , 2005, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[9]  E. Warburton,et al.  Hip fractures after stroke and their prevention. , 2007, QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians.

[10]  Chitralakshmi K. Balasubramanian,et al.  Variability in spatiotemporal step characteristics and its relationship to walking performance post-stroke. , 2009, Gait & posture.

[11]  Michael D Lewek,et al.  The relationship between spatiotemporal gait asymmetry and balance in individuals with chronic stroke. , 2014, Journal of applied biomechanics.

[12]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  Feel the force: Using tactile technologies to investigate the extended mind , 2008 .

[13]  C. Richards,et al.  Task-specific physical therapy for optimization of gait recovery in acute stroke patients. , 1993, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[14]  A. Lees,et al.  Adjustments in gait symmetry with walking speed in trans-femoral and trans-tibial amputees. , 2003, Gait & posture.

[15]  Alan M. Wing,et al.  Metronome-Cued Stepping in Place after Hemiparetic Stroke: Comparison of a One- and Two-Tone Beat , 2013 .

[16]  Carolynn Patten,et al.  Reliability of gait performance tests in men and women with hemiparesis after stroke. , 2005, Journal of rehabilitation medicine.

[17]  J. Wilken,et al.  Reliability and Minimal Detectible Change values for gait kinematics and kinetics in healthy adults. , 2012, Gait & posture.

[18]  M H Thaut,et al.  Rhythmic Auditor y Stimulation Improves Gait More Than NDT/Bobath Training in Near-Ambulatory Patients Early Poststroke: A Single-Blind, Randomized Trial , 2007, Neurorehabilitation and neural repair.

[19]  Mark A Hollands,et al.  Interventions for coordination of walking following stroke: systematic review. , 2012, Gait & posture.

[20]  Gregory E Hicks,et al.  Minimal detectable change for gait variables collected during treadmill walking in individuals post-stroke. , 2011, Gait & posture.

[21]  Paulina J. M. Bank,et al.  Comparing the efficacy of metronome beeps and stepping stones to adjust gait: steps to follow! , 2011, Experimental Brain Research.

[22]  M. Thaut,et al.  Effect of auditory rhythmic cuing on gait kinematic parameters of stroke patients , 1997 .

[23]  C. Cooper,et al.  Use of proton pump inhibitors and risk of hip/femur fracture: a population-based case-control study , 2010, Osteoporosis International.

[24]  Simon Holland,et al.  Feeling the beat where it counts: fostering multi-limb rhythm skills with the haptic drum kit , 2010, TEI '10.

[25]  M. Molinari,et al.  Rehabilitation of gait after stroke: a review towards a top-down approach , 2011, Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

[26]  Jeroen N. Struijs,et al.  International Comparison of Stroke Cost Studies , 2004, Stroke.

[27]  Tom Chau,et al.  The Effects of Rhythmic Sensory Cues on the Temporal Dynamics of Human Gait , 2012, PloS one.

[28]  Leif Johannsen,et al.  Hemiparetic Stepping to the Beat: Asymmetric Response to Metronome Phase Shift During Treadmill Gait , 2010, Neurorehabilitation and neural repair.