Automatic Assessment of Gait Impairment and Recovery in Stroke
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Automatic Assessment of Gait Impairment and Recovery of Stroke using Smartwatch
IRAS ID
263123
Contact name
Federico Villagra
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS Wales: Stroke Research, Innovation and Education Fund (SRIEF)
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Central nervous system injuries such as strokes damage directly neurons in the brain an therefore impair our abilities to move, feel, speak, think etc. depending on the areas which are affected. Stroke is a loss of brain function due to a disturbance in the blood supply to the brain which can either be decreased by a blockage of or blood can accumulate due to a rupture of a blood vessel.
According to a survey of the national stroke association 49% of stroke survivors still experience balance impairments even several months or years after the incident. 44% have still troubles with arm movements, 52% with hand movements, 44% with leg movements and 54% with walking. This affects their daily and everyday working life negatively in that they need help with daily tasks or walking or that they can’t accomplish part of their work anymore. In addition participation in social activities often decreases.
Thus, The present project focuses on developing a smart, instrumented gait monitoring system for subjects with chronic hemiparetic stroke. Our goal is to create a mobile app that runs on a standard smartwatch and a mobile phone to automatically and objectively 1) quantify gait impairments of stroke patients,
2) monitor their recovery in response to exercise rehabilitation, and
3) investigate how improvements in gait impact their quality of life.
4)Investigate the effect of the intervention on cognitive functions and its relationship with BDNF.REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
19/WA/0212
Date of REC Opinion
6 Aug 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion