TY - JOUR
T1 - Wearable Adaptive Resistance Training Improves Ankle Strength, Walking Efficiency and Mobility in Cerebral Palsy
T2 - A Pilot Clinical Trial
AU - Conner, Benjamin C.
AU - Remec, Nushka M.
AU - Orum, Elizabeth K.
AU - Frank, Emily M.
AU - Lerner, Zachary F.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R03HD094583. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. This work was also supported in part by the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix MD/PhD Program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 IEEE.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Goal: To determine the efficacy of wearable adaptive resistance training for rapidly improving walking ability in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: Six children with spastic CP (five males, one female; mean age 14y 11mo; three hemiplegic, three diplegic; Gross Motor Function Classification System [GMFCS] levels I and II) underwent ten, 20-minute training sessions over four weeks with a wearable adaptive resistance device. Strength, speed, walking efficiency, timed up and go (TUG), and six-minute walk test (6MWT) were used to measure training outcomes. Results: Participants showed increased average plantar flexor strength (17 ± 8%, p = 0.02), increased preferred walking speed on the treadmill (39 ± 25%, p = 0.04), improved metabolic cost of transport (33 ± 9%, p = 0.03), and enhanced performance on the timed up and go (11 ± 9%, p = 0.04) and six-minute walk test (13 ± 9%, p = 0.04). Conclusions: The observed increase in preferred walking speed, reduction in metabolic cost of transport, and improved performance on clinical tests of mobility highlights the potentially transformative nature of this novel therapy; the rate at which this intervention elicited improved function was 3 - 6 times greater than what has been reported previously.
AB - Goal: To determine the efficacy of wearable adaptive resistance training for rapidly improving walking ability in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: Six children with spastic CP (five males, one female; mean age 14y 11mo; three hemiplegic, three diplegic; Gross Motor Function Classification System [GMFCS] levels I and II) underwent ten, 20-minute training sessions over four weeks with a wearable adaptive resistance device. Strength, speed, walking efficiency, timed up and go (TUG), and six-minute walk test (6MWT) were used to measure training outcomes. Results: Participants showed increased average plantar flexor strength (17 ± 8%, p = 0.02), increased preferred walking speed on the treadmill (39 ± 25%, p = 0.04), improved metabolic cost of transport (33 ± 9%, p = 0.03), and enhanced performance on the timed up and go (11 ± 9%, p = 0.04) and six-minute walk test (13 ± 9%, p = 0.04). Conclusions: The observed increase in preferred walking speed, reduction in metabolic cost of transport, and improved performance on clinical tests of mobility highlights the potentially transformative nature of this novel therapy; the rate at which this intervention elicited improved function was 3 - 6 times greater than what has been reported previously.
KW - Cerebral palsy
KW - exoskeleton
KW - neurorehabilitation
KW - plantar flexor
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U2 - 10.1109/OJEMB.2020.3035316
DO - 10.1109/OJEMB.2020.3035316
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85111298961
SN - 2644-1276
VL - 1
SP - 282
EP - 289
JO - IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology
JF - IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology
M1 - 9246668
ER -