Improving functional electrical stimulation driven cycling by proper synchronization of the muscles

Our aim is to define optimal stimulation patterns for controlling lower limb movements of spinal cord injured patients. Here we report on a study about cycling movements of healthy subjects under regular conditions and spinal cord injured patients whose cycling movement was generated by functional electrical stimulation. The stimulation pattern required for coordinated activities of lower limb muscles of spinal cord injured patients was improved by using the observations what we gained from measuring and analyzing cycling movements of 42 young healthy subjects. Kinematical parameters (joint angles) and muscle activities (EMG) were recorded simultaneously by an ultrasound based movement analyzing system. We replaced the cycling program of the commercially available stimulator with a new one that we developed on the basis of the measured healthy cycling movements. We present that our new stimulation patterns provided a great increase in the performance of our spinal cord injured patients.