• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.169-185
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• 2020

Purpose : This study aimed to conduct a comprehensive meta-analysis to evaluate the effect size for pulmonary function and gait capacity of treadmill exercise in stroke patients. In addition, we aimed to examine the current status of treadmill interventions and compare the effect sizes of treadmill training to provide evidence-based practice for future development and application. Methods : The meta-analysis study was conducted using research articles that applied treadmill exercise to stroke patients and were published between January 2005 and February 2020. For a systematic meta-analysis, we conducted a search using the PICOS framework and selected 25 domestic stroke- and treadmill-related studies. The Comprehensive Meta-Analysis program was used to calculate the effect sizes for lung function and gait capacity (6-minute walk test and 10 m walk test). As Cohen's d has a tendency to overestimate the effect size, we used Hedge's g to increase the accuracy in computing the effect size. Results : Based on the results of the meta-analysis, the total effect size of treadmill exercise was 0.535, which was statistically significant, with a medium effect size (p<0.05). The effects of treadmill exercise in stroke patients were divided into dependent variables, namely pulmonary function (0.372) and gait capacity (0.584). In addition, for gait capacity, the effect sizes were evaluated for both the 6-minute walk test (0.756) and the 10 m walk test (0.514). Conclusion : This study provides objective evidence of the effectiveness of treadmill-based gait training programs. We hope that the results of this study will help support the development and implementation of treadmill-based gait training in stroke patients. Treadmill training is expected to improve not only pulmonary function, but also the gait capacity of stroke patients. Long-term investigations on the effects of treadmill training in stroke patients are necessary.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.218-228
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• 2007

Modem concepts of gait rehabilitation after stroke favor a task-specific repetitive approach. In practice, the required physical effort of the therapists limits the realization of this approach. Therefore, a mechanized gait trainer enabling nonambulatory patients to have the repetitive practice of a gait-like movement without overstraining therapists was constructed. In this study, we developed an active gait training system for patients with gait disorder. This system provides joint movements to patients who cannot carry out an independent gait. It provides a normal stance-swing ratio of 60:40 using an eccentric configuration of two gears. Joint motions of the knee and the ankle were evaluated with using the 3D motion analysis system and compared with the results from the multi-body dynamics simulation. In addition, clinical investigations were also performed for low stroke patients during the 6-week gait training. Results from the dynamics simulation showed that joint movements of the knee and the ankle were affected by the gear size, the step length and the length of the foot plate, except the radius of curvature of the foot guide plate. Also, the 6-week gait training revealed relevant improvements of the gait ability in all low subjects. Functional ambulation category levels of subjects after training were 2 in three patients and 1 in a patient. The developed active gait trainer seems feasible as an adjunctive tool in gait rehabilitation after stroke.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.287-296
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• 2020

Purpose: The study aims were to develop a wearable inertial sensor-based gait analysis device that uses machine learning algorithms, and to validate this novel device using temporal gait parameters. Methods: Thirty-four healthy young participants (22 male, 12 female, aged 25.76 years) with no musculoskeletal disorders were asked to walk at three different speeds. As they walked, data were simultaneously collected by a motion capture system and inertial measurement units (Reseed®). The data were sent to a machine learning algorithm adapted to the wearable inertial sensor-based gait analysis device. The validity of the newly developed instrument was assessed by comparing it to data from the motion capture system. Results: At normal speeds, intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for the temporal gait parameters were excellent (ICC [2, 1], 0.99~0.99), and coefficient of variation (CV) error values were insignificant for all gait parameters (0.31~1.08%). At slow speeds, ICCs for the temporal gait parameters were excellent (ICC [2, 1], 0.98~0.99), and CV error values were very small for all gait parameters (0.33~1.24%). At the fastest speeds, ICCs for temporal gait parameters were excellent (ICC [2, 1], 0.86~0.99) but less impressive than for the other speeds. CV error values were small for all gait parameters (0.17~5.58%). Conclusion: These results confirm that both the wearable inertial sensor-based gait analysis device and the machine learning algorithms have strong concurrent validity for temporal variables. On that basis, this novel wearable device is likely to prove useful for establishing temporal gait parameters while assessing gait.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2012

Objective: Falls are defined as contact of the body with the floor after losing balance during activities of daily living. Falls commonly occur among the elderly, and stroke patients in particular are at a high risk of falling. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of temporal and spatial gait parameters and gait symmetry according to experience falls in post-stroke patients. Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Fifty three patients with stroke were recruited on a voluntary basis from the rehabilitation unit, who currently undergoing physical therapy. All participants were asked to answer questions regarding the frequency of falls in the past 1 year. Fifty-three patients with stroke were allocated 2 groups according to experienced falls: stroke with falls (n=26) during past 1 year and stroke without falls (n=27). The spatial and temporal gait parameters and gait symmetry ratio were measured using GAITRite system. Results: The spatial gait parameters and the temporal gait parameters were significantly different between the stroke with falls group and the stroke without falls group (p<0.05). Furthermore, step length was the only significantly different among symmetry ratio (p<0.05). Conclusions: Experience of falls can lead to impairment of gait ability in stroke patients. This result is expected to be used as a basic data for rehabilitation program development to prevent a fall of post-stroke patients.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.163-168
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• 2009

In this study, we would be developed the fuzzy controlled PGO that controlled the flexion and the extension of each PGO's hip joint using the bio-signal and FSR sensor. The PGO driving system is to couple the right and left sides of the orthosis by specially designed hip joints and pelvic section. This driving system consists of the orthosis, sensor, control system. An air supply system of muscle is composed of an air compressor, 2-way solenoid valve (MAC, USA), accumulator, pressure sensor. Role of this system provide air muscle with the compressed air at hip joint constantly. According to output signal of EMG sensor and foot sensor, air muscles and assists the flexion of hip joint during PGO gait. As a results, the maximum hip flexion angles of RGO's gait and PGO's gait were about $16^{\circ}\;and\;57^{\circ}$ respectively. The maximum angle of flexion/extention in hip joint of the patients during RGO's gait are smaller than normal gait, because of the step length of them shoes a little bit. But maximum angle of flexion/extention in hip joint of the patients during PGO's gait are larger than normal gait.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.139-148
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• 2020

Walking is one of the most natural and repetitive actions we do in our daily lives. However, many modern people have problems with shoulders, back and spine due to incorrect walking habits. Therefore, it is becoming important to diagnose and correct wrong walking habits, for example, in-toeing, out-toeing, etc. early, which can be a precursor to various diseases. In this study, we developed the system to diagnose and prevent incorrect gait by grasping and analyzing the angle and muscle activity of the foot according to the typical wrong gait type through MPU 6050 acceleration sensor and the surface EMG sensor. Through a smartphone, numerical and visualization screens based on walking can be used to represent the angle of the feet, real-time EMG values, and even the number of steps. The correction effect was enhanced by improving the cognitive ability through a system that allows individuals to easily diagnose gait through smart devices and improve them according to their own problems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.551-554
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• 2001

A necessity of remote control robots or various searching robots etc. that accomplish works given instead of human under long distance and extreme environment such as volcano, universe, deep-sea exploration and nuclear power plant etc. is increasing, and so the development and the research regarding these mobile robots are actively progressing. The wheel mobile robot or the track mobile robot have a sufficient energy efficiency under this en, but also have a lot of limits to accomplish works given which are caused from the restriction of mobile ability. Therefore, recently many researches for the walking robot with superior mobility and energy efficiency on the terrain, which is uneven or where obstacles, inclination and stairways exist, have been doing. The research for these walking robots is separated into fields of mechanism and control system, gait research, circumference environment and system condition recognition etc. greatly. It is a research field that the gait research among these is the centralist in actual implementation of walking robot unlike different mobile robots. A research field for gait of walking robot is classified into two parts according to the nature of the stability and the walking speed, static gait or dynamic gait. While the speed of a static gait is lower than that of a dynamic gait, a static gait which moves the robot to maintain a static stability guarantees a superior stability relatively. A dynamic gait, which make the robot walk controlling the instability caused by the gravity during the two leg supporting period and so maintaining the stability of the robot body spontaneously, is suitable for high speed walking but has a relatively low stability and a difficulty in implementation compared with a static gait. The quadruped walking robot has a strong point that can embody these gaits together. In this research, we will develope an autonomous quadruped robot with an asaptibility to the environment by selectry appropriate gait, element such as duty factor, stride, trajectory, etc.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.359-368
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• 2001

A new knee-ankle-foot-orthosis(KAFO) which uses an automatically-controlled electromechanical wrap spring clutch for the knee joint was developed in the present study. It was found that the output voltage from the foot switches of the developed KAFO was proportionally increased with respect to the applied load. The output voltage from the infrared sensor also decreased as the knee flexion angle increased. The knee joint system for the new KAFO weighs only 780g lighter than any other commercially available developed system. In addition, the solenoid reduces the reaction time for the automatic control of the knee joint. The static torque of the clutch was measured for three persons, and it satisfied the normal knee extension moment during the pre-swing. Three-dimensional gait analyses for three different gait patterns (normal gait, locked-knee gait, controlled-knee gait) from five normal subjects were conducted. Controlled-knee gait showed the maximum knee flexion angle of 40.56$\pm9.55^{\circ}$ and the maximum knee flexion moment of 0.20$\pm$0.07Nm/kg at similar periods in the normal gait. Our KAFO system satisfies both stability during stance phase and free knee flexion during the swing phase at the proper period during the gait cycle. Therefore, our KAFO system would be very useful in various low extremity orthotic applications.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.245-249
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• 2006

The aim of this study is to design and develop the gait rehabilitation equipment that judge patient's movement of his/her center of gravity using pressure sensors, and to aid hemiplegic patients to balance themselves using an automatic stepper that changes the patient's center of gravity. It is hard to bear the weight on the affected side for hemiplegic patients. The gait rehabilitation equipment detects the footing phase of hemiplegic patient during training and moves the unaffected footing side of the stepper up and moves the affected footing side down simultaneously so that the patient's center of gravity can shift from unaffected side to affected side. The gait rehabilitation system was developed and applied for hemiplegic patients during exercise. Eight hemiplegic patients and one normal adult were studied. The developed gait rehabilitation system could judge not only the normal adult's intention but also the patient's intention to move his/her center of gravity. Even though the most of hemiplegic patients exercised in automatic mode and a few hemiplegic patients exercised in manual mode, the developed gait rehabilitation system can aid the hemiplegic patients to train more easily.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2017

Purpose: This purpose of this study was to compare additionally applied weight underwater gait training and over-ground gait training to improve balance and lower extremity strength in stroke patients. Methods: Subjects were randomly allocated into two groups. Underwater gait training group (n=10) and Over-ground gait training group (n=9). The groups performed their respective programs as well as conventional physical therapy 3 times/week for 6 weeks. All subjects were assessed with the Berg balance scale test, the timed up and go test, and the medical research council test pre and post intervention. A paired t test was applied to compare the differences before and after the intervention, and an independent t test was used to compare the differences between the groups. The level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: The results showed that subjects in the underwater gait training group had a significantly increased Berg balance scale, timed up and go, and medical research council scores (p<0.05), and over-ground gait training group showed a significantly increased medical research council score (p<0.05) after intervention. The underwater gait training group showed a more significant improvement in medical research council, Berg balance scale and the timed up and go test scores compared to the over-ground gait training group (p<0.05). Conclusion: Findings of this study suggest that applying additional weight during underwater gait training improves lower extremity strength and balance in stroke patients. It' findings can contribute to the development of more efficient rehabilitation for stroke patients.