Research Article
Improvements of Muscle Strength and Gait Ability among Chronic Post-Stroke Patients by Gait Training with a Footpad-Type Locomotion Interface
Naoki Tanaka1,2, Takeshige Kanamori2, Hideyuki Saitou2, Hiroaki Yano3, Junko Okuno1and Hisako Yanagi1* | |
1Department of Medical Science and Welfare, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, 305-8577, Japan | |
2Department of Rehabilitation, Tsukuba Memorial Hospital, Japan | |
3Department of Intelligent Interaction Technologies, Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba, Japan | |
Corresponding Author : | Dr. Hisako Yanagi Institute of Medical Science and Welfare Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukubashi, Ibaraki-ken 305, Japan Tel: 81-298-53-3496 Fax: 81-298-53-3039 E-mail: hyanagi@md.tsukuba.ac.jp |
Received July 01, 2012; Accepted September 18, 2012; Published September 21, 2012 | |
Citation: Tanaka N, Kanamori T, Saitou H, Yano H, Okuno J, et al. (2012) Improvements of Muscle Strength and Gait Ability among Chronic Post-Stroke Patients by Gait Training with a Footpad-Type Locomotion Interface. J Nov Physiother S1:002. doi: | |
Copyright: © 2012 Tanaka N, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Abstract
Objective: We examined the effects of gait training using an original footpad-type locomotion interface named GaitMaster for chronic stroke patients.
Method: Ten chronic hemiparetic patients after stroke participated. The subjects were divided randomly into two groups (n=5 each). Group A subjects followed an ‘intervention phase’ and then a ‘non-intervention phase’, and group B subjects followed the ‘non-intervention phase’ and then the ‘intervention phase.’ In the intervention phase, the subjects underwent twelve 20-min sessions of gait training using the Gait Master. In the non-intervention phase, they performed the same typical rehabilitation or exercise they had been doing before beginning their anticipation in the study.
Main Outcome Measures: We measured the subjects’ gait speed and the isometric muscle strength of hip flexion and extension once a week or after every three Gait Master training sessions.
Results: No significant differences were observed in the clinical data at baseline between the groups. The maximum gait speed improved significantly in the intervention phase compared to the non-intervention phase (p<0.05). Muscle strength in paretic hip flexion (p<0.05), non-paretic hip flexion (p<0.05), and paretic hip extension (p<0.05) improved significantly after the intervention phase compared to the non-intervention phase.
Conclusions: These results suggest that gait training using the Gait Master can improve gait ability and the muscle strength of both paretic hip flexion and extension, and that gait rehabilitation using the Gait Master will be effective for chronic stroke patients.