Telerehabilitation with Computer Vision-Assisted Markerless Measures: A Pilot Study with Rett Syndrome Patients

Abstract

The use of telerehabilitation systems has shown a significant growth in the past years, demonstrating their crucial relevance in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many devices and sensors have been proposed to analytically measure parameters for patient assessment, with limitations due to costs or feasibility. In this paper, we present a motor telerehabilitation system with computer vision-assisted markerless measures for patients with Rett syndrome. Twenty-one RTT (Rett syndrome) patients, with ages ranging from age 4 to 31 (Median: 12.50; IQR (interquartile range): 9.50–17.25) were recruited. The study follows a pre-test–post-test design, where the patients were submitted to a pre-test, treatment, post-test 1, treatment, post-test 2 procedure. Progress in patient outcomes was assessed by measuring joint passive range of movement (PRoM). Results show the reliability of our system, and the feasibility of a telerehabilitation treatment for RTT patients, with significant improvements in shoulder mobility and in elbow flexion and extension. Limited results in lower limbs suggest that home treatment should be fostered to reduce sedentary time.

Rett Syndrome and the Role of MECP2: Signaling to Clinical Trials

“…One study saw that RTT patients were less adaptable to autonomic changes at night and the heart rate decreased with age and was lower at night [76]. The usage of telerehabilitation systems has also been shown to be feasible for RTT patients to increase joints' passive range of movement in the upper body in a recent pilot study [77].…”