The Spanish version of the SRS-22 Patient Questionnaire demonstrated adequate internal consistency for the majority of domains and excellent reproducibility. These results suggest that the process of adaptation has produced an instrument that is apparently equivalent to the original and suitable for clinical research.

BackgroundOutcome assessment in idiopathic scoliosis should probably include patients' perception of their trunk deformity in addition to self-image. This can be accomplished with the Walter Reed Visual Assessment Scale (WRVAS). Nevertheless, this instrument has some shortcomings: the drawings are abstract and some figures do not relate to the corresponding radiological deformity. These considerations prompted us to design the Trunk Appearance Perception Scale (TAPS).MethodsPatients with idiopathic scoliosis and no prior surgical treatment were included. Each patient completed the TAPS and SRS-22 questionnaire and underwent a complete radiographic study of the spine. The magnitude of the upper thoracic, main thoracic, and thoracolumbar/lumbar structural curves were recorded. The TAPS includes 3 sets of figures that depict the trunk from 3 viewpoints: looking toward the back, looking toward the head with the patient bending over and looking toward the front. Drawings are scored from 1 (greatest deformity) to 5 (smallest deformity), and a mean score is obtained.ResultsA total of 186 patients (86% females), with a mean age of 17.8 years participated. The mean of the largest curve (CMAX) was 40.2°. The median of TAPS sum score was 3.6. The floor effect was 1.6% and ceiling effect 3.8%. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.89; the ICC for the mean sum score was 0.92. Correlation coefficient of the TAPS mean sum and CMAX was -0.55 (P < 0.01). Correlation coefficients between TAPS mean sum score and SRS-22 scales were all statistically significant, ranging from 0.45 to 0.52 (P < 0.05).ConclusionsThe TAPS is a valid instrument for evaluating the perception patients have of their trunk deformity. It shows excellent distribution of scores, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability, and has good capacity to differentiate the severity of the disease. It is simple and easy to complete and score, the figures are natural, and a new frontal view is included.

The Spanish version of the SRS-22 is valid. It has a factorial structure similar to that of the original questionnaire. Moreover, it relates to known severity characteristics of the disease, distinguishes among scoliosis patient groups, and shows concordant values with another valid instrument for measuring self-perceived health.

Background: The Walter Reed Visual Assessment Scale (WRVAS) was designed to allow idiopathic scoliosis patients to describe their perception of their deformity. In a previous stduy, the scale has shown good correlation with magnitude of the curve

BackgroundAs a consequence of the increase of cerebro-vascular accidents, the number of people suffering from motor disabilities is raising. Exoskeletons, Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) devices and Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) could be combined for rehabilitation purposes in order to improve therapy outcomes.MethodsIn this work, a system based on a hybrid upper limb exoskeleton is used for neurological rehabilitation. Reaching movements are supported by the passive exoskeleton ArmeoSpring and FES. The movement execution is triggered by an EEG-based BMI. The BMI uses two different methods to interact with the exoskeleton from the user’s brain activity. The first method relies on motor imagery tasks classification, whilst the second one is based on movement intention detection.ResultsThree healthy users and five patients with neurological conditions participated in the experiments to verify the usability of the system. Using the BMI based on motor imagery, healthy volunteers obtained an average accuracy of 82.9 ± 14.5 %, and patients obtained an accuracy of 65.3 ± 9.0 %, with a low False Positives rate (FP) (19.2 ± 10.4 % and 15.0 ± 8.4 %, respectively). On the other hand, by using the BMI based on detecting the arm movement intention, the average accuracy was 76.7 ± 13.2 % for healthy users and 71.6 ± 15.8 % for patients, with 28.7 ± 19.9 % and 21.2 ± 13.3 % of FP rate (healthy users and patients, respectively).ConclusionsThe accuracy of the results shows that the combined use of a hybrid upper limb exoskeleton and a BMI could be used for rehabilitation therapies. The advantage of this system is that the user is an active part of the rehabilitation procedure. The next step will be to verify what are the clinical benefits for the patients using this new rehabilitation procedure.