Range of Motion and Intensity Achieved During a Single Session of Targeted Robot-Assisted Exercise in Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease: A Pilot Study

TL;DR

A robotic system helped Parkinson’s patients exercise effectively at home, improving balance and flexibility while maintaining safe fatigue levels.

Contribution

A novel robotic system was developed to guide Parkinson’s patients through targeted exercises, showing immediate improvements in balance and flexibility.

Findings

Participants showed an average 1.7-inch improvement in standing forward reach after a single session.

Sessions reached ~70% of maximum heart rate, indicating appropriate exercise intensity.

The robotic system demonstrated potential for home-based Parkinson’s therapy.

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine if a robot-assisted exercise system could lead individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) through different joint ranges of motion in a fun and effective manner. Eleven individuals with PD participated. A novel robotic system placed a target at different places in space for participants to tap with their hand, foot or knee. The range of motion (ROM) was collected by inertial measurement units (APDM), and was extracted using a custom code (Matlab). ROM was dependent upon the exercise and joint of interest. Participants illustrated acceptable levels of fatigue during each session, based on an average ending heart rate of 107.0 ± 11.9 bpm (~70% of maxHR) and an ending RPE of 6.5 ± 1.8 on a 10-point scale, indicating that the sessions were appropriately challenging. Standing forward reach, used to assess static balance and flexibility, improved by an average of 1.7 inches (p < 0.01), demonstrating immediate improvements from exercising with the robot. The results demonstrate the potential benefits of exercising with a robotic exercise system. The number of sessions spent with a PT can be limited by availability, so this system could be a fun way to encourage individuals with PD to complete their PT exercises at home.

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