A study of evaluation parameters for stroke patients’ Brunnstrom recovery stages

This paper describes an activities evaluation system for stroke patients. 5 evaluation parameters in 2-D and 3-D coordinates are studied and compared with stroke patients' Brunnstrom recovery scale. The proposed system utilizes a camera to catch a stroke patient's arm motion information when the stroke patient is asked to perform a designed action. The stroke patient's hand location is detected and tracked. The hand moving information is computed in 2-D and 3-D global coordinates to calculate 5 parameters including the normalized total of displacement (NTD), the percent of peak velocity (PPV) and the movement units (MU) and 2 combination parameters which combining NTD, PPV and MU. The combination parameters indicate patients' movement degrees and are able to distinguish normal people from stroke patients, and the occupational therapists confirm experimental results. The proposed system is simple, efficient, and easily implemented.