OBJECTIVES The purpose of this article is to determine how many of the current peer-reviewed studies of ankle foot or-thoses (AFOs) on children with cerebral palsy (CP) have included adequate details of the design and material of the AFO, to enable the study to be reproduced and outcomes clearly understood. METHODS A thorough search of studies published in English was conducted in March 2015,...

BACKGROUND The design of foot and ankle orthoses is currently limited by the methods used to fabricate the devices, particularly in terms of geometric freedom and potential to include innovative new features. Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, where objects are constructed via a series of sub-millimetre layers of a substrate material, may present the opportunity to overcome these limitat...

Primary-care spirometry has been promoted as a method of facilitating accurate diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The present study examined whether improving rates of diagnosis lead to improvements in pharmacological and nonpharmacological management. From 1999 to 2003, the current authors provided an open-access spirometry and reversibility service to a local primary-c...

The hingeless plastic ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) changes stiffness largely depending on how much plastic is trimmed around the ankle. To support proper selection of the orthosis and final adjustment of the orthotic stiffness, the correlation between the posterior upright width and the resistance to dorsi- and plantar flexion movements was measured in 30 posterior-type plastic AFOs. The posterior...

BACKGROUND Previously presented new electrocardiography (ECG) algorithm for localization of arrhythmogenic focus (AFo) in right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) was based on spontaneous arrhythmia QRS morphology analysis. The aim of this study was to estimate the clinical value of our RVOT algorithm in a prospective study. METHODS AND RESULTS Algorithm validation was made on 62 patients with ...

Stroke affects 700,000 Americans per year resulting in the largest cause of long-term disability in the United States. Dropfoot is a common condition associated with residual disabilities of stokes and is characterized as a paralysis or weakness of the dorsiflexor muscles of the foot and ankle. The result is an abnormal gait cycle caused by the dragging of the foot and toes during the swing pha...

Passive-dynamic ankle-foot orthoses (PD-AFOs) constitute a class of ankle braces that rely on material properties and physical features to establish functional characteristics such as bending or rotational stiffness. We have developed a novel framework that combines a fully parameterized PD-AFO computer-aided design (CAD) model and free-form fabrication to rapidly manufacture customized PD-AFOs...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of the present study was to investigate potential effects of ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) on the functional recovery of post-acute stroke patients following rehabilitation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS This study is a retrospective cohort study. Participants were in-hospital stroke patients registered in the Japan Rehabilitation Database between 2005 and 2012. A total of 1862 pat...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of hinged and solid anklefoot orthoses (AFOs) on standing and walking abilities in children with spastic diplegia. MATERIALS & METHODS In a quasi-experimental design, 30 children with spastic diplegia, aged 4-6 years were recruited. They were matched in terms of age, IQ, and level of GMFCS E&R. Children were randomly assigned into...

Off-the-shelf rehabilitation devices are currently prescribed to assist patients with stroke. Current fabrication processes of custom-made rehabilitation devices are time consuming and laborious. The process could be only performed by skilled therapists. In addition, quantitative assessment of mechanical properties is crucial in the design of customized rehabilitation devices. By the design and...