• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.222-229
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• 2020

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of treadmill exercise on the posture and walking speed of chronic stroke survivors with an ankle-foot orthosis. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Methods: Twenty-four chronic persons with chronic stroke admitted to Bobath Memorial Hospital in Seongnam city were divided into two groups by random blind method. Treadmill exercise with an elastic ankle-foot orthosis was performed in the experimental group and treadmill exercise was performed in the control group. The experiment was carried out for 6 weeks, and the experiment was carried out three times a week for 20 minutes per session. To measure the effect, static balance was measured using the MTD system before and after training, and the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) was used to measure functional balance. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups in the BBS measurement results for confirming the functional balance (p<0.05). Also, there was a significant difference between the 2 groups in single limb support time, step time and step length (p<0.05). Conclusions: In this study, it was found that treadmill exercise with an elastic ankle-foot orthosis in persons with chronic stroke was effective in maintaining functional balance, walking ability, step length, and step time. Therefore, it is necessary to use a flexible ankle-foot orthosis with proper treadmill exercise as a method of improving balance and walking speed of chronic stroke survivors.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.48-54
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• 2010

Ankle-foot orthosis with a pneumatic rubber actuator, which is intended for the assistance and the enhancement of ankle muscular activities was developed. In this study, the effectiveness of the system was investigated during plantarflexion motion of ankle joint. To find a effectiveness of the system, the subjects performed maximal voluntary isokinetic plantarflexion contraction on a Biodex-dynamometer. Plantarfexion torque of the ankle joint is assisted by subject's soleus muscle that is generated when ankle joint do plantarflexion motion. We used the muscular stiffness signal of a soleus muscle for feedback control of ankle-foot orthosis as physiological signal. For measurement of this signal, we made the muscular stiffness force sensor. We compared a muscular stiffness force of a soleus muscle between with feedback control and without it and a maximal plantarflexion torque between not wearing a ankle-foot orthosis, without feedback control wearing it and with feedback control wearing it in each ten elderly adults. The experimental result showed that a muscular stiffness force of a soleus muscle with feedback control was reduced and plantarflexion torque of an ankle joint only wearing ankle-foot orthosis was reduced but a plantarflexion torque with feedback control was increased. The amount of a increasing with feedback control is more higher than the amount of a decreasing only wearing it. Therefore, we confirmed the effectiveness of the developed ankle-foot orthosis with feedback control.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.161-175
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of HPAFO(Hinged Plastic Ankle Foot orthosis) and SPAFO(Solid Plastic Ankle Foot Orthosis) on standing balance and step moving in hemiplegia patients. Twenty hemiplegic patients were either inpatient or outpatient at the Rehabilitation medicine, MokPo J General Hospital and JeonJu J Medical Center from July 15, 2002 to September 15, 2002. Patients were able to ambulate independently for at least 10 meters and to stand independently for at least 10 minutes with balance measurement tool. The static balance and dynamic activity measurement was determined by SAKAI active balancer(Japan) with wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO. The static balance and dynamic activity analysis was analyzed by independent t-test. The results were as follows: 1. There were no significant difference in body weight bearing percent between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.05). 2. There were significant difference in whole path length between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p<0.05). 3. There were significant difference in Effective Value Area between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.001). 4. There were significant difference in repeated functional time between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.001). 5. There were significant difference in cadence between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.001). The result of this study showed that wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO gave fair amount of improvement to static standing balance and dynamic movement ability of hemiplegic patients. The comparison result showed significant differences in between HPAFO and SPAHFO. The result of this study had a general limitation due to the restricted number of cases. The future study needs more detailed research and comparison with various variance between these two orthoses.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.65-75
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• 2013

The objective of this study is to report the effect of Chuna manipulation and foot orthosis treatment on juvenile, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis by observing four clinical case studies. Pre-and post-treatment, we investigated the changes in Cobb's angle, pelvic height and walking pattern by using the standing full spine X-ray. After application of a Chuna manipulation and foot orthosis treatment, Cobb's angle was reduced in 4 cases. Difference of pelvic height was reduced in 3 cases, and other 1 case was increased rather. And walking balance was improved in the case of measuring walking balance pattern. This study showed that Chuna manipulation and foot orthosis treatment has meaningful effect on juvenile, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and more researches should be followed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.330-335
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• 2004

The needs of walking assistive device such as the Ankle Foot Orthosis (A.F.O.) are getting greater than before. However, most of the A.F.O. are generally imported rather than domestic manufacturing. The major reason of high import reliability is the rack of impact properties of domestic commercial products. Therefore, this research is going to focus on the evaluation of impact properties of the A.F.O. which has the high import reliability. Unfortunately, these kinds of researches are not performed sufficiently. This research is going to evaluate impact energy behavior in composite materials such as the glass/epoxy (S-glass, $[0/90]_{2S}$) and the aramid/epoxy (Kevlar-29, woven type, 8 ply) of ankle foot orthosis. The approach methods were as follows. 1) The history of impact load and impact energy due to the various velocities. 2) Relationship between the deflection and damage shape according to the impact velocities. 3) The behavior of absorbed energy and residual strength rate due to the various impact velocities.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.227-232
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• 2020

Background: Hallux valgus (HV) is a foot deformity developed by mediolateral deviation of the first metatarsophalangeal joint. Although various foot-toe orthoses were used to correct the HV angle, verification of the effects of kinetics variables such as ground reaction force (GRF) through three-dimensional (3D) gait analysis according to the various type of orthoses for HV is insufficient. Objects: This study aimed to investigate the effect of soft and hard types of foot and toe orthoses to correct HV deformity on the GRF in individuals with HV using 3D motion analysis system during walking. Methods: Twenty-six subjects participated in the experiment. Participants had HV angle of more than 15° in both feet. Two force platforms were used to obtain 3D GRF data for both feet and a 3D motion capture system with six infrared cameras was used to measure exact stance phase point such as heel strike or toe off period. Total walk trials of each participant were 8 to 10, the walkway length was 6 m. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to determine the effects of each orthosis condition on the various GRF values. Results: The late anteroposterior maximal force and a first vertical peak force of the GRF showed that the hard type orthosis condition significantly increased GRF compared to the other orthosis conditions (p < 0.05). Conclusion: There were significant effects in GRF values when wearing the hard type foot orthosis. However, the hard type foot orthosis was uncomfortable to wear during walking. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new foot-toe orthosis that can compensate for these disadvantages.

• Clinical Pain
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.40-44
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• 2020

The foot or lower extremity is rarely the initial site in adult-onset dystonia, whereas dystonia in children often begins in the foot. Isolated lower extremity dystonia in adults is rarely on a primary basis. Oral anti-dystonic medications have been found unsatisfactory in providing adequate symptomatic relief. On the other hand, botulinum toxin injections have been reported as beneficial. It is also known that personalized orthosis can be an effective solution for patients of dystonia. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate a case of primary focal foot dystonia that was effectively treated with botulinum toxin injection and the custom-made ankle-foot orthosis.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.10c
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• pp.193-195
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• 2006

In this study, we developed an active controlled ankle-foot orthosis(AAFO) which can control the dorsiflexion/plantarflexion of the ankle joint during gait to prevent foot drop and toe drag for paralysis patients. To prevent dropping foot after heel strike, ankle joint was actively controlled to minimize forefoot collision with the ground. It was also controlled to provide toe clearance and to help push-off during late stance. The 3D gait analysis was performed on two healthy subjects equipped with the developed AAFO to compare with the normal gait and the conventional AFO gait. In the developed AAFO gait, differently from the conventional AFO gait, significant push-off was observed during pre-swing and the maximum flexion moment during pre-swing phase was similar to that of normal gait. A remarkable dorsiflexion also occurred during initial swing. These results indicated that the developed AAFO could have certain clinical benefits to prevent foot drop for paralysis patients, compared to conventional AFOs.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.948-956
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a prototype KAFO (Knee-Ankle-Foot Orthosis) powered by two artificial pneumatic muscles during walking. We had previously built powered AFO (Ankle-Foot Orthosis) and KO (Knee Orthosis) and used it effectively in studies on assistance of plantaflexion and knee extension motion. Extending the previous study to a KAFO presented additional challenges related to the assistance of gait motion for rehabilitation training. Five healthy males were performed gait motion on treadmill wearing KAFO equipped with artificial pneumatic muscles to power ankle plantaflexion and knee extension. Subjects walked on treadmill at 1.5 km/h under four conditions without extensive practice: 1) without wearing KAFO, 2) wearing KAFO with artificial muscles turned off, 3) wearing KAFO powered only in plantaflexion under feedforward control, and 4) wearing KAFO powered both in plantaflexion and knee extension under feedforward control. We collected surface electromyography, foot pressure and kinematics of ankle and knee joint. The experimental result showed that a muscular strength of wearing KAFO powered plnatarfexion and knee extension under feedforward control was measured to be lower due to pneumatic assistance and foot pressure of wearing KAFO powered plnatarfexion and knee extension under feedforward control was measured to be greater due to power assistance. In the result of motion analysis, the ankle angle of powered KAFO in terminal stance phase was found a peak value toward plantaflexion and there were difference of maximum knee flexion range among condition 2, 3 and 4 in mid-swing phase. The current orthosis design provided plantaflexion torque of ankle jonit in terminal stance phase and knee extension torque of knee joint in mid-swing phase.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.551-552
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• 2006