Development and evaluation of Ankle-Foot Orthosis for assisting the Sit-to-Stand motion

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K21328
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering Clinical nursing
Research Institution	International University of Health and Welfare
Principal Investigator	Itokazu Masafumi 国際医療福祉大学, 成田保健医療学部, 准教授 (00611683)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,340,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥540,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
Keywords	短下肢装具 / 起立動作 / 底屈補助 / ばね / 足継手 / 着座動作
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO) are often prescribed for the stroke patients to improve gait in clinical practice. However, to the best of our knowledge, limited reports exist to assist AFO for Sit-to-Stand motion (STS). In this study, we developed AFO incorporating a coil spring in ankle joint to support STS. We performed motion analysis by video and measured muscle activity of lower limbs. The results showed that there were change in the motion strategy of STS in the condition with the spring assistance. Activity of the knee joint extensor muscle and ankle joint planter flexor muscle revealed that significantly reduced. There is a need for further studies to test our findings in another age groups and more number of subjects and to develop AFO for Stand-to-Sit motion in the future.