Robotic Ankle Assessment Post-Stroke: Reliability, Comparison to Therapists, and Benchmark Dataset Development

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Engineering
• Biomechanics
• Neurorehabilitation

Background:

• Clinical outcome measures in rehabilitation research can be too coarse to detect subtle intervention effects.
• Sensorized robotic platforms show promise for improving motor function evaluation, but their reliability against expert therapists needs clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the test-retest reliability of a robotic device for measuring ankle active and passive range of motion (AROM, PROM) and maximum voluntary contraction (MVC).
• To compare robotic assessments with traditional therapist evaluations (goniometer, MMT) in post-stroke individuals and unimpaired adults.
• To evaluate the potential of robotic platforms for providing more granular and objective motor function data.

Main Methods:

• A robotic device was used to measure ankle AROM, PROM, and MVC in 34 chronic hemiparetic post-stroke individuals and 62 unimpaired adults (young and older).
• Test-retest reliability was assessed over two days for both the robot and experienced therapists.
• Robotic measurements were compared with therapist assessments using correlation and difference analyses.

Main Results:

• High test-retest reliability (ICC > 0.86) was observed for both robotic and therapist-based AROM and MVC measures across all participant groups.
• Robotic AROM and PROM measurements showed strong correlations with therapist assessments (r > 0.60) but were significantly larger.
• Robotic MVC measurements provided greater detail than the therapist's manual muscle testing (MMT), revealing a wider range of torque values.

Conclusions:

• Sensorized robotic platforms demonstrate high reliability and strong agreement with therapist assessments for ankle motor function evaluation.
• Robotic devices offer enhanced granularity, particularly for MVC, which can improve the tracking of motor recovery and inform tailored rehabilitation strategies.
• These findings support the clinical utility of robotic platforms as objective tools to augment traditional assessments in rehabilitation research.