By Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences January 5, 2024Innovative research study has developed a soft robotic garment that significantly reduces freezing episodes in Parkinsons disease patients, using an appealing new technique to treatment and understanding of the illness. (Artists principle.) Credit: SciTechDaily.comRobotic exosuit eliminated gait freezing, a highly devastating and common symptom.Freezing is one of the most devastating and common signs of Parkinsons illness, a neurodegenerative condition that affects more than 9 million individuals worldwide. When people with Parkinsons disease freeze, they suddenly lose the capability to move their feet, frequently mid-stride, leading to a series of staccato stutter actions that get shorter until the person stops entirely. These episodes are one of the most significant factors to falls among individuals dealing with Parkinsons disease.Current Treatments and New Research DevelopmentsToday, freezing is treated with a variety of medicinal, surgical, or behavior modifications, none of which are particularly effective.What if there was a way to stop freezing altogether?Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Boston University Sargent College of Health & & Rehabilitation Sciences have actually utilized a soft, wearable robotic to assist an individual coping with Parkinsons walk without freezing. The robotic garment, worn around the thighs and hips, gives a mild push to the hips as the leg swings, assisting the client achieve a longer stride.The device totally eliminated the participants freezing while strolling inside, permitting them to stroll faster and even more than they might without the garments help.The robotic garment (above), used around the hips and thighs, offers a gentle push to the hips as the leg swings, assisting the patient achieve a longer stride. Credit: Walsh Biodesign Lab/Harvard SEASStudy Findings and Participant Experiences”We found that just a small amount of mechanical help from our soft robotic garments provided instantaneous results and consistently enhanced walking across a variety of conditions for the individual in our study,” said Conor Walsh, the Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS and co-corresponding author of the study.The research shows the capacity of soft robotics to treat this frustrating and potentially unsafe sign of Parkinsons illness and might enable individuals coping with the illness to regain not just their mobility however their independence.The research study will be released today (January 5) in Nature Medicine.Researchers at SEAS and the BUs Sargent College of Health & & Rehabilitation Sciences used a soft, wearable robot to help an individual coping with Parkinsons walk without freezing. The robotic garment, worn around the thighs and hips, provides a gentle push to the hips as the leg swings, helping the client achieve a longer stride. The research shows the potential of soft robotics to treat a potentially unsafe symptom of Parkinsons disease and might enable people dealing with the disease to regain their mobility and self-reliance. Credit: Harvard SEASBackground of the Research and CollaborationFor over a decade, Walshs Biodesign Lab at SEAS has actually been establishing assistive and rehabilitative robotic innovations to enhance movement for people post-stroke and those coping with ALS or other diseases that affect movement. Some of that innovation, specifically an exosuit for post-stroke gait re-training, got support from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and was licensed and commercialized by ReWalk Robotics.In 2022, SEAS and Sargent College got a grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to support the development and translation of wearable technologies and next-generation robotics. The research is centered at the Move Lab, whose mission is to support advances in human efficiency enhancement with the collective space, financing, R&D infrastructure, and experience needed to turn appealing research study into fully grown innovations that can be translated through collaboration with market partners.This research study emerged from that partnership.”Leveraging soft wearable robots to avoid freezing of gait in clients with Parkinsons needed a collaboration between engineers, rehab scientists, physical therapists, biomechanists and garments designers,” said Walsh, whose team worked together carefully with that of Terry Ellis, Professor and Physical Therapy Department Chair and Director of the Center for Neurorehabilitation at Boston University.Case Study and Technological ImpactThe group invested six months dealing with a 73-year-old man with Parkinsons illness, who– regardless of utilizing both pharmacologic and surgical treatments– sustained significant and incapacitating freezing episodes more than 10 times a day, triggering him to fall regularly. These episodes avoided him from walking his community and required him to count on a scooter to navigate outside.In previous research study, Walsh and his group leveraged human-in-the-loop optimization to show that a soft, wearable device might be utilized to enhance hip flexion and help in swinging the leg forward to provide an efficient approach to reduce energy expense during walking in healthy individuals.Here, the scientists used the same technique however to resolve freezing. The wearable device utilizes cable-driven actuators and sensors worn around the waist and thighs. Using movement data gathered by the sensors, algorithms estimate the stage of the gait and produce assistive forces in tandem with muscle movement.The effect was instant. Without any unique training, the patient was able to stroll with no freezing indoors and with only periodic episodes outdoors. He was likewise able to talk and walk without freezing, a rarity without the gadget.”Our group was really delighted to see the effect of the innovation on the participants walking,” stated Jinsoo Kim, previous PhD student at SEAS and co-lead author on the study.During the research study check outs, the individual told scientists: “The suit assists me take longer steps and when it is not active, I see I drag my feet far more. It has really helped me, and I feel it is a favorable step forward. It could help me to walk longer and keep the quality of my life.””Our research study participants who volunteer their time are genuine partners,” said Walsh. “Because mobility is difficult, it was a real challenge for this individual to even come into the lab, however we benefited so much from his viewpoint and feedback.”The device might likewise be used to much better comprehend the systems of gait freezing, which is inadequately comprehended.”Because we do not actually understand freezing, we do not truly understand why this technique works so well,” said Ellis. “But this work recommends the prospective benefits of a bottom-up rather than top-down option to dealing with gait freezing. We see that bring back almost-normal biomechanics modifies the peripheral dynamics of gait and may influence the main processing of gait control.”Reference: 5 January 2023, Nature Medicine.DOI: 10.1038/ s41591-023-02731-8The research study was co-authored by Jinsoo Kim, Franchino Porciuncula, Hee Doo Yang, Nicholas Wendel, Teresa Baker and Andrew Chin. Asa Eckert-Erdheim and Dorothy Orzel likewise contributed to the design of the innovation, along with Ada Huang, and Sarah Sullivan managed the medical research. It was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant CMMI-1925085; the National Institutes of Health under grant NIH U01 TR002775; and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Collaborative Research and Development Matching Grant.
By Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences January 5, 2024Innovative research study has developed a soft robotic garment that considerably lowers freezing episodes in Parkinsons disease patients, using a promising brand-new technique to treatment and understanding of the illness. These episodes are one of the greatest factors to falls amongst individuals living with Parkinsons disease.Current Treatments and New Research DevelopmentsToday, freezing is treated with a variety of medicinal, surgical, or behavioral therapies, none of which are especially effective.What if there was a method to stop freezing altogether?Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Boston University Sargent College of Health & & Rehabilitation Sciences have actually used a soft, wearable robot to assist an individual living with Parkinsons walk without freezing. The robotic garment, used around the hips and thighs, gives a gentle push to the hips as the leg swings, helping the patient attain a longer stride.The device entirely removed the participants freezing while walking inside, enabling them to stroll faster and even more than they could without the garments help.The robotic garment (above), used around the hips and thighs, provides a gentle push to the hips as the leg swings, assisting the client achieve a longer stride.”Leveraging soft wearable robots to prevent freezing of gait in clients with Parkinsons required a partnership in between engineers, rehab researchers, physical therapists, biomechanists and apparel designers,” said Walsh, whose group collaborated carefully with that of Terry Ellis, Professor and Physical Therapy Department Chair and Director of the Center for Neurorehabilitation at Boston University.Case Study and Technological ImpactThe group invested 6 months working with a 73-year-old guy with Parkinsons illness, who– in spite of using both pharmacologic and surgical treatments– withstood considerable and incapacitating freezing episodes more than 10 times a day, causing him to fall frequently. These episodes prevented him from strolling around his community and forced him to rely on a scooter to get around outside.In previous research study, Walsh and his group leveraged human-in-the-loop optimization to show that a soft, wearable device could be utilized to augment hip flexion and help in swinging the leg forward to provide an effective method to minimize energy expenditure during walking in healthy individuals.Here, the researchers used the same technique but to attend to freezing.