Rehabilitation and Therapy Commons^™

The Effect Of A Powered Ankle Foot Orthosis On Walking In A Stroke Subject: A Case Study, Ali Pourghasem, Ismail Ebrahimi Takamjani, Mohammad Taghi Karimi, Mohammad Kamali, Mohammad Jannesari, Iman Salafian

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

[Purpose] Standing and walking are impaired in stroke patients. Therefore, assisted devices are required to restore their walking abilities. The ankle foot orthosis with an external powered source is a new type of orthosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a powered ankle foot orthosis compared with unpowered orthoses in a stroke patient.

[Subjects and Methods] A single stroke subject participated in this study. The subject was fitted with three types of ankle foot orthosis (powered, posterior leg spring, and carbon ankle foot orthoses). He was asked to walk with and without the three types …

Predicting Walking Ability And Prosthetic Candidacy Following Lower Extremity Amputation: Systematic Review, Treatment Pathway And Algorithm, Scott Love

Student Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study is a systematic review (SR) of existing literature to examine characteristics of persons with amputation which predict walking ability and prosthetic candidacy following lower extremity amputation (LEA). The identification, synthesis and summary of this evidence could assist in developing clinical practice guidelines, including a physical rehabilitation treatment pathway and a clinical algorithm. The importance of this project is the establishment to further develop evidence based LEA clinical practice guidelines. This evidence will assist the healthcare team in decision making, specifically considering evidence and patient-centric predictive characteristics.

Background: Currently, there is no multi-disciplinary physical …

Walking Performance Is Positively Correlated To Calf Muscle Fiber Size In Peripheral Artery Disease Subjects, But Fibers Show Aberrant Mitophagy: An Observational Study, Sarah H. White, Mary M. Mcdermott, Robert L. Sufit, Kate Kosmac, Alex W. Bugg, Marta Gonzalez-Freire, Luigi Ferrucci, Lu Tian, Lihui Zhao, Ying Gao, Melina R. Kibbe, Michael H. Criqui, Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, Charlotte A. Peterson

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Background: Patients with lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) have decreased mobility, which is not fully explained by impaired blood supply to the lower limb. Additionally, reports are conflicted regarding fiber type distribution patterns in PAD, but agree that skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration is impaired.

Methods: To test the hypothesis that reduced muscle fiber oxidative activity and type I distribution are negatively associated with walking performance in PAD, calf muscle biopsies from non-PAD (n = 7) and PAD participants (n = 26) were analyzed immunohistochemically for fiber type and size, oxidative activity, markers of autophagy, and capillary density. Data were …

The Effects Of External Focus Of Attention Exercise Rehabilitation On Dual Task Walking In Parkinson's Disease, Eric N. Beck

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Parkinson’s disease impairs control of well-learned movements, and therefore, individuals with Parkinson’s disease are forced to walk with greater conscious control. This causes difficulties while walking and completing a secondary task simultaneously (dual tasking), in that distractions from conscious control of walking increase the risk of falls and injury. Although, attention-based exercise may be a potential avenue to decrease the demands associated with walking in Parkinson’s disease. For example, an external focus of attention (on manipulated objects) has been found to recruit the networks that are important for walking with little conscious control (automatic control networks). In contrast, an internal …