Clinical Research Directory

Functional Electrical Stimulation to Treat Critical Neuromyopathy After Severe Stroke: a Pilot Study.

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of physiotherapy treatment combined with functional electrical stimulation (FES) in a small group of patients with severe acquired brain injury (SABI) of vascular origin and with a clinical and instrumental diagnosis of "Intensive Care Unit-Acquired Weakness" (ICU-AW). Functional electrical stimulation is a technology that uses electrical impulses, generated by an external device, to reactivate the neuromuscular system through electrodes applied to the skin. In functional electrical stimulation, this process is integrated into physiotherapy sessions, with the active involvement of the patient, through the performance of exercises with the assistance and supervision of the physiotherapist. The rationale behind this is to stimulate neuroplasticity processes by facilitating movement through the application of electrical stimuli and the active participation of the patient in performing a motor task, in an attempt to promote improvement in an impaired function. In particular, the objectives that will be pursued are: improvement of lower limb neuromyopathy assessed clinically using the Medical Research Council (MRC) scale, the Fugl-Meyer scale for lower limbs, the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) scale, the assessment of active and passive Range Of Motion (ROM) of the main joints of the lower limb (hip, knee, ankle) and measured instrumentally by neurophysiological examination and ultrasound examination. After randomization, patients in the control arm will be treated with physiotherapy and speech therapy sessions as per the conventional protocol, and an additional 15 physiotherapy sessions lasting 60 minutes over a period of 5 weeks. Alternatively, patients in the experimental group will receive, in addition to conventional rehabilitation treatment, a treatment consisting of 15 physiotherapy sessions combined with FES lasting 60 minutes over a period of 5 weeks. At the end of the treatment period, baseline characteristics and clinical and instrumental outcome variables will be compared between the two groups using the chi-square test for dichotomous and categorical variables and the t-test for independent samples or the Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables, depending on whether or not they are normally distributed. In all analyses, a p-value \<0.05 will be considered significant.

Functional Assessment in Critically Ill Patients

This longitudinal, prospective observational study aims to evaluate functional status in critically ill adult patients in the Intensive Care Unit using the Chelsea Critical Care Physical Assessment Tool (CPAx). The primary objective is to analyze CPAx score variation as a potential predictor of clinical outcomes, including mortality and duration of mechanical ventilation. Functional assessments will be performed at intensive care unit (ICU) admission and discharge to monitor changes in physical function and to predict adverse clinical outcomes.

Effect of Arm Cycling Exercise on Pulmonary Functions After Colectomy In Elderly

This study will be done to investigate the effect of arm cycling on exercise and functional capacity, arterial blood gases, pulmonary functions, diaphragmatic excursion, time to peak inspiratory amplitude, physical function, anxiety, and depression after colectomy in the elderly.

The NRC Dataset. Developing a Minimum Dataset for Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation: a Modified E-Delphi Study

Several rehabilitation datasets are presently in use for specific patient groups in England. The 'National Clinical Audit of Specialist Rehabilitation for patients with complex needs following major injury' (NCASRI) evaluated outcomes within a cohort of Major Trauma patients between 2015 and 2018 using data from two of these datasets. The NCASRI project outlined some of the shortcomings of the pre-existing datasets and highlighted the need for a single National Rehabilitation Dataset to provide long term evaluation of a variety of patient presentations. The proposed study will seek to develop such a dataset by means of an E-delphi study. This study will seek consensus from a panel of experts on the data items required to measure the effectiveness and socio-economic impact of multidisciplinary inpatient rehabilitation. Providing commissioners, researchers and clinicians with the data required to improve patient care, conduct research and develop rehabilitation services. There are three potential phases to this study: * Phase one involves the establishment of a core domain set, outlining what information (data) should be included in the NRC core dataset. * Phase one will consist of at least 2 rounds of voting, with successive rounds of voting undertaken until an a-priori consensus of 70% is reached for all core data items marked as mandatory/critical data in fitting OMERACT guidelines. * After 2 rounds, any data item that have reached consensus will be included in the final dataset. These core domain (data items) will then be excluded from subsequent rounds of voting. * A maximum of 4 rounds will be allowed in Phase 1. At which point the highest-ranking data items remaining with a consensus above 60% from each of the pre-identified categories will be included in the final dataset. * Phase two will explore what tools should be used to collect the core domains (outcome measure instruments) for each category outlined in phase 1. * Phase 2 will follow the same protocol for including outcome measure instruments into the core outcome set as were required to include core data items from phase 1. * If a consensus of equal or greater than 60% cannot be reached using an E-Delphi method in either phase 1 or phase 2 then a virtual meeting will be held amongst all expert panel members to reach consensus using a nominal group technique (phase 3).