Efficacy of Unilateral Versus Bilateral Approach to Robot-Assisted Rehabilitation in Patients With Subacute Stroke

Subacute stroke participants will be recruited from the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and then were randomly assigned to 1 of the 3 groups: RT with the InMotion3 (unilateral) robot group, RT with the Bi-Manu-Track (bilateral) robot group, and conventional intervention group. Assessments on motor impairments/performance (Fugl Mayer Assessment, Modified Ashworth Scale, MyotonePRO, Medical Research Council scale, Jamar dynamometer, and Action Research Arm Test) and daily functions (Motor Activity Log, ABILHAND Questionnaire, accelerometer, and Adelaide Activities Profile) take about 40 minutes to complete. Kinematic evaluation will take about 1 hour. Blood samples of the patients (12 ml.) will be collected to examine the physiological markers (ie, inflammation-related markers, oxidative stress markers, erythrocyte deformability, and blood glucose) before and after intervention. A total of 24 ml blood will be collected in this study. Except for the blood taking, all the examinations are non-invasive. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), controlling for the pretest differences, will be separately performed for each outcome measure to test the effects of different intervention groups.