Adaptive Treadmill-Assisted Virtual Reality-Based Gait Rehabilitation for Post-Stroke Physical Reconditioning—a Feasibility Study in Low-Resource Settings

Objectives: Individuals with chronic stroke suffer from heterogeneous functional limitations, including cardiovascular dysfunction and gait disorders (associated with increased energy expenditure) besides psychological factors, e.g., motivation. To recondition their cardiovascular endurance and gait, rehabilitation exercises with gradually increasing exercise intensity suiting their individualized capabilities need to be offered. In principal accordance, here we (i) implemented an adaptive Virtual Reality (VR)-based treadmill-assisted platform sensitive to energy expenditure, (ii) investigated its safety and feasibility of use and (iii) examined the implications of gait exercise with this platform on cardiac and gait performance along with energy expenditure, clinical measures (to estimate physical reconditioning of subjects with stroke) and their views on community ambulation capabilities. Methods: Ten able-bodied subjects volunteered in a study to ensure its safety and feasibility of use. Nine subjects with chronic stroke underwent physical reconditioning over multiple exposures using our platform. We investigated the patients' cardiac and gait performance prior and post exposure to our platform along with studying the clinical relevance of gait parameters in estimating their physical reconditioning. We collected the patients' feedback. Results: We found statistical improvement in the gait parameters and reduction in energy expenditure during overground walk following ~1 month of gait exercise with our platform. They reported that the VR-based tasks were motivating. Conclusion: Results show that this platform can pave the way towards implementing home-based individualized exercise platform that can monitor one's cardiac and gait performance capabilities while offering an adaptive and progressive gait exercise environment within safety thresholds suiting one's exercise capabilities.