Treino locomotor com suporte parcial de peso corporal na reabilitação da lesão medular: revisão da literatura

Design-to-Workspace Synthesis of a Cable Robot Used in Legs Training Machine

This paper deals with a continuous design task of a planar cable robot used in a gait training machine called the cable-driven legs trainer. The design of cable robots requires satisfying two constraints, that is, tensions in the cables must remain non-negative, and cable interferences should be avoided. The carried design approach is based on interval analysis, which is one of the most efficient methods to obtain certified results. The constraints of non-negative tensions and cable to end-effector interference are solved using interval analysis tools. By means of a dynamic simulation, the reached workspace and the produced wrenches of the cable robot are evaluated as a set of interval vectors. An optimization algorithm is then designed to optimize the cable robot structure for the gait training machine. The robot is designed to produce non-negative tensions in the cables and to avoid collision at all times within the desired workspace and under the required external loads.

Advantage in muscle activation in gait with support of body weight in spinal cord injury

Abstract Introduction: The locomotor training with body weight support has been proposed as an alternative for the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injury, in order to develop most of the residual potential of the body. Objective: To compare the levels of muscle activation of the main muscle involved in gait during body weight-supported treadmill training and body weight-supported overground training in incomplete spinal cord injured patients. Methods: It was a prospective cross-sectional study, in which 11 incomplete injured patients were submitted to two modalities of gait with body weight support, the first one on the treadmill (two different speeds: 1 and 4km/h), and the second one with the walker on fixed floor. The electromyographical acquisition was done in the rectus femoris (RF), vastus medialis (VM), vastus lateralis (VL) and gluteus maximus (GM). Results: There was a greater muscle activation of all muscles analyzed in the treadmill training as compared to the over groundtraining, both at 4 km/h (RF: p=0.00), (VM: p=0.00), (VL: p=0.00) e (GM: p=0.00) and at 1km/h (RF: p=0.00), (VM: p=0.00), (VL: p=0.00) e (GM: p=0.00). When comparing the two modalities of treadmill training, at 4 and 1km/h, there was no statically significant difference between them (RF: p=0.36), (VM: p=1.00), (VL: p=1.00) e (GM: p=0.16). Conclusion: The gait training with body weight support is more effective in activating the muscles involved in the gait training on treadmill compared to overground training in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury.