Development of an Innovative Smart Home Exercise Training Device Targeting Better Body Control Mechanisms and Improved Therapeutic Efficacy in Patients with Cervical Radiculomyelopathy

Cervical radiculomyelopathy is a common spinal degenerative disease found in the elderly population. Typical signs and symptoms include sensory disturbances, muscle weakness, stiff cervical spine, motor clumsiness, as well as degraded postural control and difficulty in gait. It is well known that neck muscles comprise of high-density of sensory receptors and thus play an important role in the proprioceptive input of the body function. Previous studies have established that cervical radiculomyelopathy inevitably affects accuracy of head motions and indirectly reduces functional standing balance and gait stability. Exercise rehabilitation is commonly employed in the management of both mild and severe cervical radiculomyelopathy. However, very limited studies have specifically assessed the effect of exercise program on head control and postural stability. It is therefore the goal of the current project to develop a smart home exercise training device to encourage and maintain a consistent exercise regime at home for cervical radiculomyelopathy patients with and without undergoing decompression surgery. The project is also to document and discuss the treatment effectiveness and possible mechanisms of the home exercise program on improving head control and postural stability. In the first year, the project aims to develop a smart home exercise training device that is portable, easy to operate and with smart management agent as well as high level of data security in order to encourage its utilization for patients. Second and third year of the project will involve classifying patients based on their severity and grade of the spinal cord compression and then assess their clinical outcomes at pre-, 3, 6 and 12 month after enrolling in the exercise training program. The overall aim of the proposed project is to better understand how the different sub-groups of cervical radiculomyelopathy patients, classified based on severity, may perform differently in head control and postural stability due to the differences in the underlying neuromuscular control strategies. The different characteristics identified for the different sub-groups will then be correlated and compared to the functional and disability questionnaire scores in order to establish a baseline for future progress monitoring as well as better design of a customized and tailored treatment program for the individual patients.

Project ID:PB10501-3868
External Project ID:MOST104-2221-E182-078-MY3