NCT06410989

Evaluation of Sensorimotor Ankle Impairments in Chronic Stroke

Relating Ankle Impairments to Walking Ability for Characterization of Sensorimotor Function in Individuals With Chronic Stroke

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 80 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Shirley Ryan AbilityLab · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 80 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to capture sensorimotor ankle function in a chronic stroke population through validation of novel, experimental metrics and their comparison with established, clinical measures of function. For this purpose, the researchers will evaluate various single-joint, impairment-level measures such as visuomotor tracking performance and proprioception as well as functional-level measures including spatiotemporal gait (e.g., gait speed and stride length/time) and standardized clinical scales. This study will be carried out in chronic stroke patients as well as age-matched healthy controls. Results will help the researchers identify more quantitative metrics that can be used to monitor and rehabilitate sensorimotor function following stroke.

Detailed description

The purpose of this study is to capture sensorimotor ankle function in a chronic stroke population through validation of novel, experimental metrics and their comparison with established, clinical measures of function. Target populations will perform various single-joint ankle tasks (i.e., dorsiflexion and plantarflexion), assessing the quality of their movements during visuomotor tracking, goal-directed movements and unilateral/bilateral tests of joint position and force sense. Collecting these data will delineate which measures of ankle function are specific to chronic stroke, as well as sensitivity to the severity of stroke, assessed via the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for the Lower Extremity. In addition, the investigators will determine the relationship between deficits in proprioception and assessments which integrate multiple feedback modalities (i.e., proprioception, motor control and vision) to assess the role of peripheral sensory feedback in performing ankle movements post-stroke. The investigators will correlate measures of ankle impairment to clinical scales commonly used in physical therapy. As a first step, the investigators will directly compare these ankle measures to clinical tests of ankle sensation and motor control to demonstrate improvements in assessment sensitivity with this method. Furthermore, the investigators will correlate these ankle measures with clinical measures of lower-limb function during ambulatory and balance tasks, to better understand the contribution of ankle impairments to dynamic, multi-joint activities in chronic stroke.

Conditions

• Stroke

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-07-15
• Primary completion: 2025-08-31
• Completion: 2027-08-31
• First posted: 2024-05-13
• Last updated: 2025-05-25

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States