Virtual Reality Task Oriented Training on Upper Limb Function in Stroke Patients

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

virtual reality (VR) head mounted display: The participants' in this group were given VR-TOT training under real home scenes created in the platform of Unity. There were 6 VR-TOT tasks, and the task choice was according to the performance of participants' upper limb function. The experienced therapist will guide and monitor the participants and adjust the task if necessary.

Study summary

Stroke rank second among the top causes of death, affecting millions of people in the worldwide. It has been reported that hemiplegia is the most common sequelae after stroke, accounting for about 50%-70% of all sequelae of the disease. About 75% of stroke patients are accompanied by different degrees of upper limb dysfunction, which seriously affects the activities of daily life and cause serious physical and mental burden to patients and their families. Early recovery of upper limb motor function is a great significance for the overall recovery of stroke patients. Task-oriented training (TOT) is reported to improve the motor coordination and ADL. However, lack varies of tasks limited the treatment ability for patients with stroke hemiplegia during hospital admission. Virtual reality (VR) offers advantages of providing virtual scenes that is difficult in the real world, such as the scene of garden, camara, and plaza etc. And the familiar circumstances for patients may have the potential to increase the motivation of rehabilitation training, and improve the efficacy of occupational therapy (OT).

The goal of this study is to observe the effectiveness of real home settings via virtual reality assisted TOT on upper limb function in patients with stroke. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) were used to observe the changes in brain function under VR-TOT training.

We intended to recruit 120 participants, and allocate to three groups: VR-TOT, TOT, and traditional OT. Each of them completed the Fugl-Meyer-UE, Wolf motor function test (WMFT), hand gripping power, modified Ashworth、Purdue Pegboard test （PPT）、modified Barthel index (MBI)、mini mental state examination (MMSE)、NIH stroke scale (NIHSS)、Virtual reality sickness questionnaire (VRSQ), Intrinsic Motivation Inventory Inventory (IMI), satisfaction VAS, body representation, sense of ownership, Proprioceptive Drift scale before and after the treatment. Additionally, we conducted fNIRS and EEG at baseline and during the follow up to understand the changes in brain function.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Fugl-Meyer Assessment Upper Extremity Scale (FAM-UE) — There were 4 time points for evaluation:after screening for enrollment but before study initiation,the intervention of 2 weeks, the intervention of 4 weeks，1 month after the intervention

Trial sites (1)

More Qilu Hospital of Shandong University trials in China

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