The purpose of this study was to measure ankle stiffness in stroke patients using system identification, which provides an objective method of separating reflex and intrinsic stiffness components. / We studied twelve (12) stroke patients with clinical evidence of ankle spasticity and compared them with nine (9) gender- and age-matched controls. Subjects lay supine with their foot attached to an electro-hydraulic actuator by a custom-fitted boot. Series of pseudo-random binary sequences were used to rotate the ankle. The position, torque, and EMG recorded during these perturbations were used to separate the reflex and intrinsic contributions of ankle stiffness. / The results of this study showed that ankle stiffness was increased in four (4) stroke patients, mostly due to the increased reflex stiffness component. Furthermore, the changes in reflex stiffness varied with position; ankle stiffness increased in these stroke subjects as the ankle was dorsiflexed. The reflex gain parameter explained the increased reflex stiffness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.79230 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Galiana, Laura |
| Contributors | Kearney, Robert (advisor), Fung, Joyce (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Engineering (Department of Biomedical Engineering) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001973897, proquestno: AAIMQ88356, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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