Cerebral Palsy

RehabWeek/ISPO Canada Best Student Poster: Brandon Nguyen!

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Brandon Nguyen standing in front of his poster at RehabWeek wearing a dark blue shirt. His poster features images of the smartphone app and graphs.

Congrats to Brandon Nguyen who was awarded the Best Student Poster award by the International Society of Prosthetics & Orthotics Canada at RehabWeek in Toronto this past week! Brandon presented his work, “Accuracy and repeatability of using smartphone sensors for orthotic tuning.”

Check out his abstract and poster.

You can also download the HuskySTEPS app to try it out yourself.

The ISPO student award winners for 2019 rehab week, including four students with Brandon in the middle, and the two main conference award organizers.

This work, in collaboration with Nick Baicoianu and Darrin Howell, examined the accuracy of measuring shank-to-vertical angle during walking with a smartphone compared to traditional motion capture systems. Shank-to-vertical angle is a measure used by orthotists and therapists for AFO tuning and gait training. The short story – placing the smartphone on the front of the shank can measure shank-vertical-angle with errors less than two degrees compared to traditional motion capture systems, with high intra-rater and inter-rater repeatability across days.

Brandon dressed in his purple graduation regalia in front of the UW fountain

Brandon also recently finished his Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree at the University of Washington – making him one of the rare engineer-therapists. In recognition of his efforts to combine academic scholarship with social awareness and concern, he was awarded the 2019 UW Graduate Medal.

Congratulations Brandon! We are so excited to see what you do next.

Spasticity Research Award Nominations

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Nicole Zaino (wearing glasses) poses on campus

Walking takes energy – but for kids with cerebral palsy, walking can be exhausting. The average child with cerebral palsy consumes two times the amount of energy during walking compared to typically-developing peers – that is the equivalent of jogging or climbing stairs!

The reasons for why walking takes so much energy for children with cerebral palsy remains largely unknown. The extra muscle activity caused by spasticity has often been theorized as a large contributing factor. If this was true, we would expect that treatments that reduce spasticity, like selective dorsal rhizotomy, could dramatically reduce energy during walking.

Led by Nicole Zaino, a new PhD student in the lab, and our collaborator Mike Schwartz at Gillette Children’s Specialty we have been investigating this question. By analyzing energy consumption for children with cerebral palsy who underwent rhizotomy and matched peers with cerebral palsy, we were determined that reducing spasticity does not lead to dramatic decreases in energy consumption.

This research has been nominated as a finalist for two awards at the International Society of Biomechanics Conference. This work was selected as one of 5 finalist for the Clinical Biomechanics Award. Nicole will also present as one of the finalists for the David Winter Young Investigator Award. The final awards will be announced at the conference in Calgary the first week of August. Good luck Nicole!

You can learn more about the study and read the preprint on BioRxiv:

Spasticity reduction in children with cerebral palsy is not associated with reduced energy consumption during walking

BR Shuman, M Goudriaan, K Desloovere, MH Schwartz, KM Steele (2018) “Associations Between Muscle Synergies and Treatment Outcomes in Cerebral Palsy Are Robust Across Clinical Centers.” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

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Journal article in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation:

In collaboration with Gillette Children’s Hospital and University Hospital Pellenberg we examined whether associations between treatment outcomes and muscles synergies are robust between clinical centers.

Objective: To determine whether patient-specific differences in motor control quantified using muscle synergy analysis were associated with changes in gait after treatment of cerebral palsy (CP) across 2 clinical centers with different treatments and clinical protocols.
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: Clinical medical center.
Participants: Center 1: children with CP (n=473) and typically developing (TD) children (n=84). Center 2: children with CP (n=163) and TD children (n=12).
Interventions: Standard clinical care at each center.
Main outcome measures: The Dynamic Motor Control Index During Walking (walk-DMC) was computed from electromyographic data during gait using muscle synergy analysis. Regression analysis was used to evaluate whether pretreatment walking speed or kinematics, muscle synergies, treatment group, prior treatment, or age were associated with posttreatment changes in gait at both clinical centers.
Results: Walk-DMC was significantly associated with changes in speed and kinematics after treatment with similar regression models at both centers. Children with less impaired motor control were more likely to have improvements in walking speed and gait kinematics after treatment, independent of treatment group.
Conclusions: Dynamic motor control evaluated with synergy analysis was associated with changes in gait after treatment at both centers, despite differences in treatments and clinical protocols. This study further supports the finding that walk-DMC provides additional information, not captured in traditional gait analysis, that may be useful for treatment planning.

Alyssa Spomer and Momona Yamagami Present at a Neurorehabilitation Conference in Spain

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Alyssa and Momona attended the Summer School on Neurorehabilitation (SSNR) in Baiona, Spain from September 16th to the 21st. Alyssa gave a podium presentation on a feedback system she is developing that aims to characterize and target altered motor control in cerebral palsy. Momona gave a poster presentation to share her recent quantifications of deficits in motor planning in cerebral palsy. Nice work, Alyssa and Momona!Alyssa at podium presenting "A Feedback System to Characterize and Target Altered Motor Control in Cerebral Palsy".

 

 

Monoma stands in front of her poster "Quantification of Deficits in Motor Planning in Cerebral Palsy", discussing with interested colleagues.

 

Brianna Goodwin Presents at Seattle Children’s Grand Rounds

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Brianna Goodwin, a Master’s student in our lab, presented her collaborative Brianna Goodwin is pictured behind a podium, standing in front of her slideshow during her presentation.abstract on monitoring Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT), a therapy for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP), at the Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH) Grand Rounds this past week. The Grand Rounds are a time to present research, new ideas, and translational science to medical personnel of varied background.

To read Brianna’s abstract in full, download her PDF here: SCH Grand Rounds, CIMT abstract