NCT02993042

Effect of Robot-assisted Gait Training on Gait Automaticity in Patients With Parkinson's Disease

Effect of Robot-assisted Gait Training on Gait Automaticity in Patients With Parkinson's Disease: a Feasibility Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 12 (actual)
• Sponsor: Seoul National University Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Robot-assisted gait training can improve gait ability of patients with Parkinson's disease by repeating a normal gait pattern with high intensity. This study is a feasibility study to investigate whether robot-assisted gait training can be applied to improve walking autonomy in patients with Parkinson 's disease.

Detailed description

Parkinson's disease is a disease caused by dopamine deficiency in the striatum resulting from the loss of dopaminergic neuronal cells in the cerebral substantia. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor symptoms including gait disturbance and balance instability. In the early stages of Parkinson's disease, dysfunction of the sensorimotor area of the basal ganglia typically occurs, leading to habitual control hurdles. Accordingly, cognitive efforts are required to perform habitual tasks such as walking, and the automaticity of walking is reduced. Walking performance in a dual-task condition has been used to assess gait automaticity in patients with Parkinson's disease. Robot-assisted gait training is a method of rehabilitation that repeats normal gait patterns at high intensity. Recent meta-analysis has shown that robot-assisted gait training improved the recovery of independent gait after stroke compared with conventional rehabilitation therapy. On the other hand, robot-assisted gait training in Parkinson's disease has been reported to improve walking speed and walking endurance compared to conventional physical therapy, but is not superior to treadmill exercise of the same intensity. In addition, it has been reported that in patients with Parkinson's disease with balance impairment, robot-assisted gait training can improve balance disorder compared with physical therapy, and gait freezing has improved in some small-scale patients. However, studies on the effectiveness of robot-assisted gait training in Parkinson's disease are still lacking, and the mechanism of the effect has not been elucidated. In particular, the effect on gait automaticity, which is a characteristic of Parkinson 's disease, has not been studied. Therefore, this pilot study is aimed to investigate whether robot-assisted gait training can be applied to improve walking autonomy in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Conditions

• Parkinson Disease
• Gait Disorders, Neurologic

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Robot-assisted gait training	Patients should use their belts (Harness) to support their weight when walking in equipment. In the first training session, the patient focuses on fitting and adapting the equipment and helps the patient learn. To minimize skin damage, the patient can wear a protector. The initial walking speed starts at 1.5km / h (0.42m / s) and can be increased gradually to 3.0km / h (0.83m / s) by increasing to 0.2km / h (0.06m / s) per session. The therapist provides appropriate visual and auditory instructions to allow the patient to participate as fully as possible in the walking cycle provided by the walking robot. The treatment time per session is 30 minutes except for the time of wearing and releasing.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-12-01
• Primary completion: 2018-01-01
• Completion: 2018-02-01
• First posted: 2016-12-14
• Last updated: 2018-03-09

Locations

1 site across 1 country: South Korea