Identifying the Optimal Dynamic Ankle-Foot Orthosis Bending Stiffness for Individuals Post-Stroke

University of Delaware

Status

Enrolling

Conditions

Stroke

Treatments

Device: Dynamic ankle-foot orthosis

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT06304519

1986626-1

Details and patient eligibility

About

Ankle braces are commonly prescribed to individuals who have suffered a stroke to help their ankle joints work properly, which allows these individuals to walk better. Currently, there are no standardized guidelines to follow when choosing which brace is best for an individual. Prior work has shown that customizing the level of assistance that these braces provide based on each individual's level of ankle impairment improves the individuals' walking function more than their current brace. The next important step is to fine-tune the customization and work to develop a set of guidelines that can be used by clinicians to help them prescribe the right brace for each patient's needs. The purpose of this study is to test different levels of assistance provided by the brace to determine the optimal customization method. Additionally, this study aims to begin to create a guide to help clinicians choose the best brace for each individuals' needs. To accomplish this goal, individuals will walk with a brace under five different assistance level conditions. The individual's walking function, performance on clinical measures, and response to questionnaires will be examined to determine both the optimal brace for each individual and hopefully identify clinical tools that can be used to guide prescription of the brace. This study is a major step towards developing effective, standardized prescription guidelines that optimize walking of individuals post-stroke.

Enrollment

40 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

21 to 85 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

chronic stroke (> 6 months post-stroke)
been prescribed an AFO by a clinician
have plantar flexor strength deficits (unable to complete at least 25 standing heel-raises
have at least 5 degrees of passive dorsiflexion range of motion (as measured during the clinical evaluation in Visit 1).

Exclusion criteria

Those that will not be included in this study are individuals with 1) Evidence of cerebellar stroke on clinical MRI, 2) Other neurologic conditions in addition to stroke, 3) Sensorimotor neglect, 4) Inability to walk outside the home prior to the stroke, 5) Total joint replacement or orthopedic problems in the lower limbs or spine that limit walking, 6) Coronary artery bypass graft or myocardial infarction within past 3 months, 7) Unexplained dizziness in last 6 months, 8) Inability to communicate with investigators, 9) Lack of decisional capacity.