Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

About: Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital is a healthcare organization based out in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transcranial direct-current stimulation. The organization has 1093 authors who have published 2224 publications receiving 75576 citations.

A review of wearable sensors and systems with application in rehabilitation.

Abstract: The aim of this review paper is to summarize recent developments in the field of wearable sensors and systems that are relevant to the field of rehabilitation. The growing body of work focused on the application of wearable technology to monitor older adults and subjects with chronic conditions in the home and community settings justifies the emphasis of this review paper on summarizing clinical applications of wearable technology currently undergoing assessment rather than describing the development of new wearable sensors and systems. A short description of key enabling technologies (i.e. sensor technology, communication technology, and data analysis techniques) that have allowed researchers to implement wearable systems is followed by a detailed description of major areas of application of wearable technology. Applications described in this review paper include those that focus on health and wellness, safety, home rehabilitation, assessment of treatment efficacy, and early detection of disorders. The integration of wearable and ambient sensors is discussed in the context of achieving home monitoring of older adults and subjects with chronic conditions. Future work required to advance the field toward clinical deployment of wearable sensors and systems is discussed.

Aging of skeletal muscle: a 12-yr longitudinal study

Abstract: The present study examines age-related changes in skeletal muscle size and function after 12 yr. Twelve healthy sedentary men were studied in 1985–86 (T1) and nine (initial mean age 65.4 ± 4.2 yr) ...

A systematic review on reporting and assessment of adverse effects associated with transcranial direct current stimulation

Abstract: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive method of brain stimulation that has been intensively investigated in clinical and cognitive neuroscience. Although the general impression is that tDCS is a safe technique with mild and transient adverse effects (AEs), human data on safety and toler- ability are largely provided from single-session studies in healthy volunteers. In addition the frequency of AEs and its relationship with clinical variables is unknown. With the aim of assessing tDCS safety in different conditions and study designs, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of tDCS clinical trials. We assessed Medline and other databases and reference lists from retrieved articles, searching for articles from 1998 (first trial with contemporary tDCS parameters) to August 2010. Animal studies, review articles and studies assessing other neuromodulatory techniques were excluded. According to our eligibility criteria, 209 studies (from 172 articles) were identified. One hundred and seventeen studies (56 %) mentioned AEs in the report. Of these studies, 74 (63 %) reported at least one AE and only eight studies quantified AEs systematically. In the subsample reporting AEs, the most common were, for active vs. sham tDCS group, itching (39.3 % vs. 32.9 %, p>0.05), tingling (22.2 % vs. 18.3 %, p>0.05), headache (14.8 % vs. 16.2 %, p>0.05), burning sensation (8.7 % vs .1 0 %,p>0.05) and discomfort (10.4 % vs. 13.4 %, p>0.05). Meta-analytical techniques could be applied in only eight studies for itching, but no definite results could be obtained due to between-study heterogeneity and low number of studies. Our results suggested that some AEs such as itching and tingling were more frequent in the tDCS active group, although this was not statistically significant. Although results suggest that tDCS is associated with mild AEs only, we identified a selective reporting bias for reporting, assessing and publishing AEs of tDCS that hinders further conclusions. Based on our findings, we propose a revised adverse effects question- naire to be applied in tDCS studies in order to improve systematic reporting of tDCS-related AEs.