22 May 2019 14:33
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With the changes in the life style of people, more and more are falling victims to diseases like hypertension, diabetics etc. It ranks amongst the most common local pain complaints and may be frequent for many people but sudden severe headaches may be caused by an early symptom of heart disease as we mentioned in previous articles, by rupturing a brain vessel or depletion of oxygen in some parts of the brain.
Further research is warranted in order to determine the effects of passive-exercise training on other systems of the body (e.g., the cardiovascular, shoulder exercises for stroke patients respiratory, endocrine and immunological) and to determine proper exercise protocols (device settings, frequency and duration and clinical setting).
This is important, since physiological manifestations are often related to one's sensorimotor recovery ( MacIntosh et al., 2008 ) that might be interesting to investigate while patients are exposed to a VR-based environment augmented with a Kinect device.
The landmark RCT ‘Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis' demonstrated that, with respect to stroke or death, aggressive medical management, including exercise and activity counselling, outperformed the combination of angioplasty and stenting plus aggressive medical management in patients with severe intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis following a TIA or stroke.
Even though the results showed harder performance during the aquatic treadmill test, patients did not feel as if they were working harder, which shows the aquatic treadmill exercise is a viable way to improve stroke recovery faster without the added strain.
Passive exercise also has been shown to improve cognitive function in patients with Parkinson's disease 35 and can also reduce motor deterioration in patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) 36. Although passive exercise training does not appear to induce any central physiological adaptations in patients with spinal cord injuries 37, peripheral physiological benefits (such as increased muscle blood flow) can occur in the trained muscle 38. Much more research is needed to determine the effects of passive cycle ergometer exercise for the hemiplegic stroke patient.
38 Fatigue may adversely affect physical performance self-efficacy rather than performance per se. 35 Poststroke fatigue is multifactorial, having been associated with functional disability, prestroke fatigue, medical comorbidities, sleep disturbances, nutritional problems, depression, cognitive dysfunction and damage to particular brain areas.
For example, Bao et al. have reported the use of Kinect-assisted computer-based upper limb rehabilitation therapy that aimed to improve the upper limb functionalities in post-stroke patients ( Bao et al., 2013 ). Again, Liao et al. have used the Kinect-based system for postural tracking of a patient's upper limb for improving shoulder and elbow movements ( Liao et al., 2018 ). Instead of offering only visual feedback, researchers have augmented such systems with auditory feedback ( Sin and Lee, 2013 ). In one of the recent review articles ( Webster and Ozkan, 2014 ), the use of Kinect coupled with computer-based graphical interface powered by Virtual Reality (VR) has been reported for upper limb rehabilitation exercises.