When someone has suffered a stroke, the resulting partial paralysis and/or loss of strength often leaves them with a poor sense of balance. A new rehabilitative platform could help in the recovery process, by objectively assessing what's known as their "center of pressure."
Ordinarily, as a stroke patient is learning to regain their sense of balance, a therapist assesses how stable they appear to be when walking, standing, or performing other activities. One problem with this approach lies in the fact that it's subjective – different therapists may have different ideas of what constitutes a significant balance impairment. Even a single therapist's assessment may vary from day to day, depending on factors such as their mood.
That's where the new mobile platform comes in.
Designed by a team of scientists from Spain's University of the Basque Country, it repeatedly and objectively measures and monitors the patient's center of pressure.
"Let’s imagine we are standing while traveling on a bus," says Assoc. Prof. Francisco Campa, one of the team members. "When the bus moves off or brakes, the body, in order to balance itself, distributes its weight forwards and backwards supported by the soles of the feet against the floor. The resultant point of this force is known as the center of pressure, and the study of its movement enables a person's balance to be assessed."
As a patient stands on the platform, its powered floor moves up and down while also tilting fore, aft, and to either side. As the person attempts to keep their balance by compensating for those movements, four pressure sensors beneath the floor measure the changing force and distribution of their center of pressure.
Importantly, the exact pattern of floor movements – including their amplitude and speed – can be repeated for each assessment session. And of course, the patient's performance and progress are assessed by an algorithm that doesn't change from day to day.
The platform has already been clinically trialed at Spain's Gorliz Hospital, with promising results. It is hoped that once the technology has been developed further, it could be used not only by stroke patients but also by people suffering from vertigo problems, or by amputees adapting to new prostheses.
A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Mechatronics.
Source: University of the Basque Country
