NCT04262414

Restoring Upright Mobility After Spinal Cord Injury

Restoring Upright Mobility After Spinal Cord Injury Using Functional Electrical Stimulation

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 5 (actual)
• Sponsor: University Health Network, Toronto · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Up to 15 able-bodied individuals will participate in one testing session to evaluate the effectiveness of the A-FES system. Up to 20 individuals with SCI will participate in 12 sessions of A-FES therapy. At each session, participants will stand on a force plate (Accu Sway, AMTI, USA) with the A-FES system (Compex Motion II, Compex Motion, Switzerland) donned. The centre of pressure (COP) will be calculated in real time using the force plate data. The calculated COP will be presented to participants on a monitor and they will be instructed to shift their COP in the indicated directions as represented by a cursor (i.e. training with visual feedback). The intensity of electrical stimulation provided by the A-FES system will be regulated by the measured COP in a closed-loop manner. In this study we propose to develop and evaluate the clinically-feasible A-FES system for the training of standing balance.

Conditions

• Spinal Cord Injuries
• Spinal Cord Diseases

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Functional Electrical Stimulation	The device used was a prototype closed-loop FES system to improve standing balance by activating the ankle plantar flexors and dorsiflexors (i.e. A-FES system). As a closed-loop system, the body's position and velocity are continually monitored, and the level of stimulation adjusted accordingly on a moment-to-moment basis. This differs from currently available FES units, which do not monitor body movement and therefore, provide a constant level of stimulation unless manually adjusted by the user/PT. The control strategy used in the A-FES system mimics the physiological control system in able-bodied people, meaning it has the potential to "re-educate" normal movement patterns.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-04-30
• Primary completion: 2018-11-14
• Completion: 2019-06-05
• First posted: 2020-02-10
• Last updated: 2023-05-23

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada