BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE This study investigated the non-velocity-related effects of a 1-bar rigid ankle-foot orthosis on the gait of hemiparetic subjects, with particular emphasis on the muscle activity of the paretic lower limb. METHODS Twenty-one hemiparetic subjects who had been using an ankle-foot orthosis for equinovarus deformity for <1 week participated. Patients walked cued by a metron...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) can lead to ventilatory restriction, respiratory muscle weakness and exercise limitation. However, both the causes and the extent of muscle dysfunction remain unclear. The aim of our study is to describe muscle weakness and its relationship to lung function and tolerance to exercise in AIS patients. Lung and muscle function, together with exercise capacity,...

Success has been demonstrated in rehabilitation from certain injuries while using positive-pressure treadmills. However, certain injuries progress even with the lighter vertical loads. Our purpose was to investigate changes in muscle activation for various lower limb muscles while running on a positive-pressure treadmill at different amounts of body weight support. We hypothesized that some mus...

This study investigated corticospinal-evoked responses in lower limb muscles during voluntary contractions at varying strengths. Similar investigations have been made on upper limb muscles, where evoked responses have been shown to increase up to approximately 50% of maximal force and then decline. We elicited motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) and cervicomedullary motor-evoked potentials (CMEPs) i...