Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3
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- All Subjects: Strokes
- Creators: School of Nutrition and Health Promotion
- Creators: Liu, Shiyi
Description
Upper extremity function is vital for activities of daily living especially in stroke survivors. An innovative way to improve upper extremity function has been shown with Assisted Cycle Therapy (ACT). This is among the first study to examine ACT in stroke survivors. 13 stroke survivors performed ACT, VC, and NC and pre and post measures of upper extremity function were conducted with the box and blocks test (BBT). The results showed that non-paretic upper extremity improved its function after ACT and VC, but not after NC. For the paretic arm, while the results did not reach conventional levels of significance, improvements in upper extremity function following ACT more so than VC or NC. These results were interpreted to suggest that ACT resulted in increased production of BDNF in the motor cortex, which resulted in improvements in global motor function.
ContributorsHeyer, Brittany Nicole (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Microwave tomography (MWT) differs from the current forms of biomedical imaging modalities by measuring the dielectric properties in different tissues in order to create an image of the object under evaluation. This technology could be harnessed for the evaluation of a stroke because the areas of the brain that are not being provided oxygen will have a reduced concentration of blood, leading to a reduced relative permittivity (also referred to as dielectric constant). Strokes themselves require accurate diagnosis for proper treatment to be administered. Microwave tomography offers advantages of stroke diagnosis over imaging methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT). Like MRIs, microwave tomography passes only non-ionizing radiation through the patient, allowing for multiple safe scans. Because MWT requires only an array of antennas sending a non-ionizing electromagnetic field, which is on the level of the fields sent in cell phones, a patient undergoing a stroke could be diagnosed inside an ambulance with multiple MWT scans, greatly reducing the time before treatment. The challenge for this thesis is to correctly solve an ill-posed problem presented in a microwave tomography system and output an image of the object's electrical properties. The system itself is an inverse problem because the object to be imaged and its properties are unknown. Rather, the incident field and resulting scattered field due to interaction with the object of interest are known. To achieve a unique solution for this problem, a software implementation of a common microwave inversion method known as Born's Iterative Method is realized through MATLAB.
ContributorsNam, Suhyun (Author) / Chae, Junseok (Thesis director) / Liu, Shiyi (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This study examined upper extremity function, including manual dexterity, in chronic stroke survivors following a 10-week high intensity interval treadmill walking intervention. Six stroke survivors completed two 35-minute high intensity interval treadmill walking sessions based on ventilatory threshold per week. In addition, each participant completed one 30-minute low-intensity walking session at home. Participants completed upper extremity and manual dexterity testing at baseline, acutely, and after the 10-week intervention. Contrary to the prediction made, significant improvements in both paretic and non-paretic upper-extremity function including manual dexterity were not found. While time to complete the Nine Hole Peg Test (9HPB) somewhat decreased and the number of blocks transferred in the Box and Blocks Test (BBT) slightly increased, results were not found to be statistically significant. The results do suggest, nonetheless, that high intensity interval treadmill training may lead to improvements in upper extremity function and potentially daily living in chronic stroke survivors.
ContributorsHatty, Laura Elizabeth (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Bosch, Pamela (Committee member) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05