Post-Stroke Rehabilitation Monitoring Using Wireless Surface Electromyography: A Case Study

Post-stroke rehabilitation monitoring provides key insights which can be used for development of customized treatment plans for patients. Rehabilitation monitoring systems available today are limited to observational measurements performed over a short period of time. Long term monitoring of stroke patients is necessary to keep track of stroke recovery and assess the patient's response to the therapist's treatment technique. This work is a case study that focuses on investigating the effects on muscle recruitment in bicep and calf muscles with and without orthotic intervention. A wireless surface Electromyography (sEMG) device is developed for monitoring muscle recruitment. Monitoring is done on a hemiplegic subject, before and after the physiotherapy treatment sessions, over duration of four months. An increase in sEMG peak frequency was observed after therapy in the absence of orthotic intervention while there was reduction in the peak frequency post therapy with orthotic intervention. Functional Independence Measurement scale, used to assess a patient's level of disability as well as change in patient status in response to medical intervention is used as a reference measure to validate the sEMG device. The substantial changes in muscle recruitment due to regular therapy and orthotic intervention found in the study supports the use of the developed sEMG device as a surrogate to existing devices.