A study of evaluation parameters for stroke patients’ Brunnstrom recovery stages

This paper describes an activities evaluation system for stroke patients. 5 evaluation parameters in 2-D and 3-D coordinates are studied and compared with stroke patients´ Brunnstrom recovery scale. The proposed system utilizes a camera to catch a stroke patient´s arm motion information when the stroke patient is asked to perform a designed action. The stroke patient´s hand location is detected and tracked. The hand moving information is computed in 2-D and 3-D global coordinates to calculate 5 parameters including the normalized total of displacement (NTD), the percent of peak velocity (PPV) and the movement units (MU) and 2 combination parameters which combining NTD, PPV and MU. The combination parameters indicate patients´ movement degrees and are able to distinguish normal people from stroke patients, and the occupational therapists confirm experimental results. The proposed system is simple, efficient, and easily implemented.