The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has supported CUHK to launch a three-year project 'CUHK Jockey Club HOPE4Care Programme' to implement four evidence-based advanced rehabilitation technologies in 40 local elderly day care centres and rehabilitation centres, to benefit the community. Our research team had developed the "Interactive FES Cycling System" that can be used as tools for rehabilitation by individuals who have suffered from a stroke or elderly. The system can integrate both motor power and muscle power in order to facilitate an active rehabilitative exercise.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
120
Electrical pulses from a stimulator can stimulate the target muscles to generate muscle contraction to support a continuous cycling motion
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
RECRUITINGFugl-Meyer Assessment for Lower-Extremity
Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Lower-Extremity (FMA-LE), consists of 34-level cumulative scoring system to examine lower-limb functions of hemiplegic stroke patients quantitatively through a set of lower-limb movement tasks in reflex, flexor/extensor synergy, volitional movement, coordination and speed (Fugl-Meyer, et al., 1975). All assessment items are either scoring "full", "partial", or "none" functionality in the affected side, which minimizes ceiling and floor effects. FMA-LE demonstrated high internal consistency and a reliable assessment tool for a group of 140 hemiplegic community dwelling patients (Park \& Choi, 2014).
Time frame: Three months after the last training session
6 Minute Walk Test
Six-Minute Walk Test (SMWT), measures the maximum walking distance covered in fixed duration as a sub-maximal test of endurance and aerobic capacity. The measurement of 6MWT is highly correlated to FAC (Mehrholz, et al., 2007) with good reliability (ICC=0.94-0.96) (Steffen, Hacker \& Mollinger, 2002).
Time frame: Three months after the last training session
Timed 10-meter Walk Test
Timed 10-Meter Walk Test (10mWT), measures comfortable and fast walking speeds in short distance. The ability to increase walking speed above a comfortable pace suggests the capability to adapt to varying environments, such as crossing street, with high reliability (ICC=0.90-0.96) (Flansbjer, et al., 2005). Average walking speed of healthy elderly subjects ranges in 0.6m/s-1.4m/s, and can increase to 21%-56% above the comfortable pace for faster walking speed.
Time frame: Three months after the last training session
Berg Balance Scale
Berg Balance Scale (BBS), consists of 56-level measures to examine balance ability and to predict falling risk with high reliability (ICC=0.98) (Steffen, Hacker \& Mollinger, 2002). Stroke patients were assessed based on their performance on 14 simple mobility tasks, including transfer, standing, and reaching.
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Time frame: Three months after the last training session
Modified Ashworth Scale
Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), consists of 4-level scale to examine joint spasticity based on muscle tone and resistance detected during passive stretching with good inter-rater reliability (ICC =0.85) (Bohannon \& Smith, 1987).
Time frame: Three months after the last training session
Functional Ambulation Category Test
Functional Ambulatory Category (FAC) is a reliable measurement of independent walking ability on level-ground walking and stair ambulation, which is a good prediction of independent community walking post-stroke (Mehrholz, et al., 2007). FAC consists of 6-level scale: patients with FAC=4 requires supervision in level ground walking, FAC=5 requires supervision only when walking on non-level surface such as stairs.
Time frame: Three months after the last training session