NCT04155866Completed
Comparing the Difference in Muscle Synergies Between Healthy Participants and Chronic Stroke Survivors
A Wearable for Post-stroke Rehabilitative Multi-muscle Stimulation Inspired by the Natural Organization of Neuromuscular Control
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Last updated 26 Dec 2025
Brief summary (registry, in English)
Participants are seeking to unleash the full therapeutic potential of a newly developed, customizable and potentially commericializable 10-channel Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) to rehabilitate the gait of chronic stroke survivors. Patricipants will utilize the theory of muscle synergies from motor neurosciences, which are defined as neural modules of motor control that coordinate the spatiotemporal activation patterns of multiple muscles, to guide our personal selections of muscles for FES. Before applying FES stimulations to chronic stroke survivors, participants will have to define normal muscle synergies from age-matched healthy control participants (1 session for each participant). After comparing the difference in muscle synergies in both healthy subjects and chronic stroke survivors, participants are attempting to rehabilitate the gait of chronic stroke survivors by using the wearable. Each chronic stroke survivor will undergo 18-session FES training (\~ 1 month). It is hypothesized that FES will promote motor recovery by supplying the missing normal muscle synergies to chronic stroke survivors at their supposed times of activations in each step cycle during interventional training. It is also expected that the walk synergies of the paretic side of chronic stroke survivors should be more similar to healthy muscle synergies at the two post-training time points than before training. The healthy normal muscle synergies will be defined by EMG recordings from the recruited healthy participants.
- Status (registry)
- Completed
- Study type
- Observational
- Enrollment
- 30 (actual)
- First submitted
- 10 Oct 2019
- Start date
- 1 Jul 2021
- Primary completion date
- 1 Dec 2025
- Lead sponsor
- Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Diseases
- Stroke
- NCT number
- NCT04155866
What you commit to
- Study type: Observational
- Participants enrolled: 30
- From 1 Jul 2021 to the primary completion date, 1 Dec 2025
- 1 site in 1 country
- Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them
Built from the registry fields of ClinicalTrials.gov. It describes the study, not your situation.
Who cannot take part
Copied verbatim from ClinicalTrials.gov and grouped by topic. Only the trial team decides who can take part.
Other illness
- For both healthy participants and chronic stroke survivors:
- Have cardiac pacemaker;
Other
- Cannot comprehend and follow instructions, or with a score \<21 on the mini-mental state exam;
- Have skin lesions at the locations where FES or EMG electrodes may be attached;
- Have major depression;
- Present with severe neglect
Who the study is looking for
- For chronic stroke survivors:
- Right-handed elderly chronic stroke survivors; age ≥40; ≥6 months post-stroke
- Unilateral ischemic brain lesions
- Participants should be able to walk continuously for ≥15 min. with or without assistive aid
- For healthy participants:
- Healthy, right-handed subjects, age ≥40, free from any history of major neurological, musculoskeletal, and psychiatric disorders
- Able to walk continuously for ≥20 min. without fatigue.
Age in the registry: 40 years to 85 years · Sex: All · Accepts healthy volunteers
Sites (1)
Sites in registry order. Pick your city on the disease page to sort them by distance.
| Site | City | Country | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Hong Kong | Hong Kong SAR China | Unknown status |
This page is information, not medical advice. Discuss any trial with your doctor.