Verification of Immediate Effect of Finger Extension Using a Finger Extensor Facilitation Training Device “iPARKO”

Abstract

Some stroke patients are unable to open their paralyzed hand with their own intention due to spasticity or muscle weakness. In our previous work, we developed a finger extensor facilitation training device “iPARKO” that imitates finger extensor facilitation technique. In this paper, we developed a hand fixation brace of the iPARKO for stroke hemiplegics and conducted the experiments to verify the immediate effect of finger extension for six stroke survivors. We compared the effects of iPARKO training and finger extensor facilitation technique. Comparison results showed that the amount of improvement in active range of motion with iPARKO training reached 48.3% more than that with finger extensor facilitation technique, and larger in the two participants. The results that the uniformity of each fingertip load in stroke survivors was equivalent to that of healthy participants confirmed the effectiveness of the new hand fixation brace. In addition, it was confirmed that Modified Ashworth Scale Score improved in all participants with iPARKO training and that it was effective in reducing spasticity.