Abstract
Introduction: This article is part of the Focus Theme of Methods of Information in Medicine on “Methodologies, Models and Algorithms for Patients Rehabilitation”. Objectives: The great potential of robots in extracting quantitative and meaningful data is not always exploited in clinical practice. The aim of the present work is to describe a simple parameter to assess the performance of subjects during upper limb robotic training exploiting data automatically recorded by the robot, with no additional effort for patients and clinicians. Methods: Fourteen children affected by cerebral palsy (CP) performed a training with Armeo®Spring. Each session was evaluated with P, a simple parameter that depends on the overall performance recorded, and median and interquartile values were computed to perform a group analysis. Results: Median (interquartile) values of P significantly increased from 0.27 (0.21) at T0 to 0.55 (0.27) at T1. This improvement was functionally validated by a significant increase of the Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function. Conclusions: The parameter described here was able to show variations in performance over time and enabled a quantitative evaluation of motion abilities in a way that is reliable with respect to a well-known clinical scale.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 84-88 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Methods of Information in Medicine |
Volume | 55 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- Assessment
- Cerebral palsy
- Rehabilitation
- Robotics
- Upper limb
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health Informatics
- Health Information Management
- Advanced and Specialised Nursing