Project to benefit stroke patients

The College's interdisciplinary Center for Biomedical Engineering Research has received a five-year, $3.1 million Biomedical Research Partnership Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help stroke patients regain their ability to walk.

This is the second major NIH grant the center has received recently. In April 2002, the center announced an NIH grant of $6.4 million for research on osteoarthritis.

Through the new grant, researchers will help stroke patients suffering central nervous system dysfunction learn to walk again, with a combination of electrical stimulation of their muscles and the use of a rehabilitation robot, according to Thomas S. Buchanan, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the project.

"In our protocol, muscles will be electrically stimulated in an impaired leg to activate them and move the limb, bypassing the normal commands from the brain that are not working properly in patients with strokes," Buchanan says. "The robot will help move the impaired leg to train a patient how to walk again following the stroke."

He says the 10-year goal of the project is the development of a portable device that patients can wear to assist them in walking.

The multidisciplinary project will involve faculty members from the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Physical Therapy, working together through the Center for Biomedical Engineering Research.

Buchanan is the principal investigator and will build musculoskeletal models of the leg. Kurt Manal, associate scientist in mechanical engineering, will work with Buchanan on the models.

Stuart Binder-Macleod, co-principal investigator and chairperson of UD's Department of Physical Therapy, will supervise the functional electronic stimulation, or FES, portion of the project. Jun Ding, a researcher in physical therapy, will work with Binder-Macleod on the FES protocols.

Sunil Agrawal, professor of mechanical engineering, will supervise construction of the robot.

The project team also includes John Scholz, associate professor of physical therapy and an expert on stroke and neurological injuries, and Katherine Rudolph, assistant professor of physical therapy and an expert on human gait analysis.