Alternative Therapies for Improving Physical Function in Individuals With Stroke
Stroke

About this trial
This is an interventional treatment trial for Stroke
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
- Participants should be 18 to 90 years of age.
- Able to follow instructions provided in English.
- History of neurological impairment (Stroke, Parkinson's disease and Multiple Sclerosis) for at least 6 months prior to evaluation (self-report, confirmed by participant's physician).
- Able to stand and walk with or without assistive device or braces as part of their activities of daily living (self-report).
- Cognitive skills to actively participate (score of < 26 on Montreal cognitive assessment indicates cognitive impairment) (30).
- Stroke - a) Upper extremity limb function (score of at least 25 on the Fugyl Myer Upper extremity test and Muscle performance grade on deltoid, pec major and and triceps of > or = 2/5).
- Parkinson's disease a) - Stable medication use b) stage I or II of the Boher classification of Parkinson's disease c) No sudden fluctuations (on-off phenomenon).
- Multiple Sclerosis - No Severe disability "Expanded Disability Status Scale" (EDSS scale < or = 4.5).
Exclusion Criteria:
1. Significant cognitive or communicative impairment indicated by a score of > 26 on Montreal cognitive assessment indicates cognitive impairment. In neurologically impaired individuals, for cognitive impairment a score of <25 on Mini Mental State Exam Score; for aphasia <71% on Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test and >15 on Geriatric Depression Scale.
2. Presence of concurrent severe medical illness, including unhealed pressure sores, active or untreated infection, thromboembolic disease, severe contractures, active heterotrophic ossification in the lower extremities, lower limb fractures, known history of peripheral nerve injury in the lower legs, history of cardiovascular or pulmonary complications, or with pacemakers and history of metabolic (endocrine, hepatic) or renal dysfunction, uncontrolled seizures (Self-report).
3. History of any acute and significant cardiopulmonary, musculoskeletal or systemic diagnosis in the past 6 months or history of a recent major surgery (<6months) or hospitalization (<3months) and on any sedative drugs.
4. Partcipants unavailable for 12 weeks of participation, 5. Current participation in other treatment (i.e.- Botox) or other research studies during the phase of the study.
6. Pregnancy. 7. Uncontrolled pain >3/10 on VAS 8. Complains of shortness of breath 9. Uncontrolled hypertension (systolic blood pressure (SBP) > 165 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) > 110 mmHg during resting) [1,2].
10. Resting hear rate (HR) > 85% of age-predicted maximal heart rate (HRmax) (HRmax = 220 - age) [3].
11. Oxygen saturation (measured by pulse oximeter) during resting < 95%. 12. Severe cardiac disease (New York Heart Association classification of II-IV) [1].
13. Exclusion Criteria for Laboratory Slip test. i. T score of < -2 on the Bone density, measured through via the heel ultrasound machine. It must be noted that the particpants will be explained that they were excluded from the balance test to avoid any injury risk as there is a chance that their bones may be weak. However, they will be told that the ultrasound test does give more false positives (i.e. lower scores indicating weak bones when in fact they are not weak) and that they probably could see their physician for a more conclusive test (such as the full-body bone scan).
ii. Partcipants with > 250 lbs in weight or with a BMI OF >35Kg/m2. It should be noted that the harness system is capable of tolerating up to 300 lbs of weight safely.
iii. Unable to walk a length of 8 meters without cane two times with a rest break in between the two walks, lasting shorter than five minutes.
iv. Unable to stand for at least 5 minutes (to accommodate length of a dance song) as assessed by decrease in blood pressure by 20 mmHg systolic and 10 mmHg diastolic measured by the a research team member.
Please note that the exclusion criteria for the Laboratory Slip test will only exclude participants from taking this test. They will still be part of the study if other inclusion /exclusion criteria are met and will go through the other tests and the intervention protocol.
Sites / Locations
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- University of Illinois Chicago
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Experimental
Virtual-reality based dance group
Virtual-reality based dance training - Participants received Virtual-reality based dance training for 6 weeks using the commercially available Kinect dance game (Microsoft Inc., Redmond, WA, U.S.A.) "Just Dance 3". The six week session consisted of 5 sessions/week, next two weeks of 3 sessions/week and last two weeks of 2 sessions/week, for a total of 20 sessions. Participants played on 10 songs for the first 2 weeks, progressing to 12 songs during the 3nd and 4th weeks with an addition of 2 more songs of their choice during the last two weeks. Participants played on alternating slow- and fast-paced songs (each maximum of 4 minutes in duration) with a five minutes break after a set of one slow and fast song.