2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Elucidation of the effect of treadmill walking using VR technology for stroke patients and the recovery mechanism

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	17K01529
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
Research Institution	Meiji University
Principal Investigator	TOMINAGA TAKANORI 明治大学, 研究・知財戦略機構(生田), 研究推進員 (40788907)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	小野弓絵明治大学, 理工学部, 専任教授 (10360207) 美馬達哉立命館大学, 先端総合学術研究科, 教授 (20324618)
Project Period (FY)	2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	脳卒中患者 / VR技術 / 歩行
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In this study aimed to investigate the effects of virtual reality (VR) treadmill gait training under various Optic flow (OF) speeds in stroke patients and healthy controls. Twelve healthy young adults and 10 stroke patients walked on a treadmill with speed set at their comfortable walking speed for 5 min each under four conditions: no OF stimulation and OF stimulations at 100%, 125%, and 75% of the treadmill speed. In stroke patients, the walking time and number of steps were significantly reduced relative to the pre-training state from immediately to 10 min after treadmill training at 125% OF stimulation speed. The walking rate also increased significantly 10 min after training. In healthy controls, the walking time decreased significantly from immediately to 10 min after training at 125% OF stimulation speed compared with the pre-training state. In conclusion, OF stimulation at a speed faster than the actual locomotion speed effectively increases the walking speed.
Free Research Field	リハビリテーション
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	脳卒中患者が歩行を獲得する利点は、生活範囲の拡大、生活の質の向上、心肺機能の維持・向上、廃用性低下の予防、介助者負担の軽減などがあげられる。運動障害が軽度であれば、様々な実環境で歩行訓練が可能であるが、重症度によっては歩行訓練ができる空間も制限される。さらにリハビリテーション医療においては、1日に提供できるリハビリに時間的制限があり、機械的技術を応用したリハビリシステムの構築は重要な課題である。本研究では、脳卒中患者に対してVR技術を用いた歩行訓練が効率的に歩行能力を向上させかつ医療経済的にも有効である可能性が考えられた。