Evidence of neuroplasticity with robotic hand exoskeletonfor post-stroke rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation

Megha Saini¹  Neha Singh¹  Amit Mehndiratta²  M. V. Padma Srivastava³  Nand Kumar⁴ 

[1] Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India;Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India;Department of Biomedical Engineering, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India;Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India;Department of Psychiatry, All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India;

关键词: Stroke;    Neurological rehabilitation;    Wrist;    Metacarpophalangeal joint;    Robotic exoskeleton;    Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation;    Cortical-excitability;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12984-021-00867-7

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundA novel electromechanical robotic-exoskeleton was designed in-house for the rehabilitation of wrist joint and Metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint.ObjectiveThe objective was to compare the rehabilitation effectiveness (clinical-scales and neurophysiological-measures) of robotic-therapy training sessions with dose-matched conventional therapy in patients with stroke.MethodsA pilot prospective parallel randomized controlled study at clinical settings was designed for patients with stroke within 2 years of chronicity. Patients were randomly assigned to receive an intervention of 20 sessions of 45 min each, five days a week for four weeks, in Robotic-therapy Group (RG) (n = 12) and conventional upper-limb rehabilitation in Control-Group (CG) (n = 11). We intended to evaluatethe effects of a novel exoskeleton based therapy on the functional rehabilitation outcomes of upper-limb and cortical-excitability in patients with stroke as compared to the conventional-rehabilitation. Clinical-scales– Modified Ashworth Scale, Active Range of Motion, Barthel-Index, Brunnstrom-stage and Fugl-Meyer (FM) scale and neurophysiological measures of cortical-excitability (using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) –Motor Evoked Potential and Resting Motor threshold, were acquired pre- and post-therapy.ResultsNo side effects were noticed in any of the patients. Both RG and CG showed significant (p < 0.05) improvement in all clinical motor-outcomes except Modified Ashworth Scale in CG. RG showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher improvement over CG in Modified Ashworth Scale, Active Range of Motion and Fugl-Meyer scale and FM Wrist-/Hand component. An increase in cortical-excitability in ipsilesional-hemisphere was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05) in RG over CG, as indexed by a decrease in Resting Motor Threshold and increase in the amplitude of Motor Evoked Potential. No significant changes were shown by the contralesional-hemisphere. Interhemispheric RMT-asymmetry evidenced significant (p < 0.05) changes in RG over CG indicating increased cortical-excitability in ipsilesional-hemisphere along with interhemispheric changes.ConclusionRobotic-exoskeleton training showed improvement in motor outcomes and cortical-excitability in patients with stroke. Neurophysiological changes in RG could most likely be a consequence of plastic reorganization and use-dependent plasticity.Trial registry number: ISRCTN95291802

【 授权许可】

CC BY