Shih-Ching Chen

• M.D., Ph.D.
• Taipei Medical University

Different body weight-supported gait-training strategies are available for improving ambulation in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). These include body weight-supported overground training (BWSOGT), body weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT), and robot-assisted gait training (RAGT). We conducted a network meta-analysis of randomised...

Background High-definition transcranial electrical theta burst superimposing direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS-eTBS) not only incorporates the therapeutic advantages of tDCS and TBS but enhances stimulation focality and practicality. However, the applicability of this innovative neuromodulatory device in post-stroke rehabilitation remains uncerta...

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of high-definition transcranial alternating current stimulation (HD-tACS) to the left primary motor cortex (M1) in the treatment of fibromyalgia (FM) patients. Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled clinical trial, patients with FM were recruited in a teaching h...

The aims of this study were (1) to compare the effect of robot-assisted gait orthosis (RAGO) plus conventional physiotherapy with the effect of conventional therapy alone on functional outcomes, including balance, walking ability, muscle strength, daily activity, and cognition, in chronic stroke patients, and (2) to determine the association of adj...

Music can generate a positive effect in runners’ performance and motivation. However, the practical implementation of music intervention during exercise is mostly absent from the literature. Therefore, this paper designs a playback sequence system for joggers by considering music emotion and physiological signals. This playback sequence is implemen...

Background Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) were both demonstrated to have therapeutic potentials to rapidly induce neuroplastic effects in various rehabilitation training regimens. Recently, we developed a novel transcranial electrostimulation device that can flexibly output an electric...

Background: Stroke survivors need continuing exercise intervention to maintain functional status. This study assessed the feasibility and efficacy of an interactive telerehabilitation exergaming system to improve balance in individuals with chronic stroke, compared to conventional one-on-one rehabilitation. Methods: In this prospective case-cont...

Background Fibromyalgia is a chronic widespread pain condition that is associated with sleep disturbances and cognitive impairments. Neurofeedback has been demonstrated to improve pain, sleep quality, and fatigue. However, few studies have examined the effect of neurofeedback for patients with fibromyalgia. Aim To determine the effects of neurofee...

This chapter provides an overview of assistive technology (AT) devices and services, including definitions, history, and legislation. It also discusses the use of AT for people with communication disorders, impaired mobility, hearing and visual impairments, and cognitive/learning disabilities. In addition, this chapter covers the selection of appro...

Background We designed a novel ankle foot orthosis (AFO), namely, ideal training AFO (IT-AFO), with motion feedback on the hemiparetic lower limb to improve ambulation in individuals with stroke-related hemiplegia. We, therefore sought to compare the kinematic parameters of gait between IT-AFO with and without dynamic control and conventional anter...

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a customized interactive video game-based (IVGB) training on balance in older adults with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods: In this 12-week crossover trial, PD patients ≥65 years of age were randomly divided into Group A (a 6-week intervention phase followed by a 6-w...

Purpose: This paper describes international actions to collaborate in the assistive technology (AT) arena and provides an update of programmes supporting AT globally. Methods: The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies the severe global uneven distribution of resources, expertise and extensive unmet need for AT, as well the optimistic substanti...

Background: Social function and quality of life were negatively impacted by the sequelae of treatment for the disease in the head and neck cancer survivor with swallowing disorder. Method: Data from a total of 1023 survivors between July 2012 and November 2017 were collected from the Taiwan Data Bank of Persons with Disability. Nonparametric ran...

Background/purpose: Few studies have investigated the effects of changing the amplitude of dorsal genital nerve stimulation (GNS) on the inhibition of neurogenic detrusor overactivity in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). The present study determined the acute effects of changes in GNS amplitude on bladder capacity gain in individuals with...

Fall prevention requires a multifaceted approach that should include individual risk assessment and intervention strategies. Exercise interventions may mitigate most risk factors for falls (e.g., balance impairment, gait impairment, and muscle weakness). Numerous systematic reviews (SRs) or meta-analyses have assessed the effectiveness of exercise...

Recently, a specific repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) waveform, namely the theta burst stimulation (TBS) protocol, has been proposed for more efficiently inducing neuroplasticity for various clinic rehabilitation purposes. However, few studies have explored the feasibility of using the TBS combined with direct current (DC) wavefo...

Purpose. This study evaluated the effects of interactive video game-based (IVGB) exercise on balance in diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy. Materials and Methods. Twenty-four patients were randomly assigned to two groups (12 participants per group). Group A received IVGB training for the first 6 weeks, with no exercise in the subsequent 6...

Pain severity and sleep are associated with cognitive performance in patients with fibromyalgia. This study examined whether sleep mediates the relationships of pain severity with psychomotor vigilance and attention in patients with fibromyalgia by analysing 80 patients with fibromyalgia. Cognitive performance, pain severity and sleep parameters we...

Objective Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a global scenario with high mortality and disability, which does not have an effectual and approved therapy till now. Bladder dysfunction is a major symptom after TBI, and this study deals with the alleviation of bladder function in TBI rats, with the aid of deep brain stimulations (DBS). Methods TBI was i...

Purpose: To develop a set of quality indicators (QIs) for managing the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health-based disability evaluation system in Taiwan. Method: Using a three-round Delphi exercise, 20 representatives from the social welfare associations for people with disability completed the consensus process. Ques...

Objectives Radiofrequency has been used to suppress spasticity affecting motion in patients with cerebral palsy and spinal cord injury. This study tested spasticity suppression and locomotion change after pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) at the dorsal root ganglion of rats with spasticity. Materials and Methods Twenty‐four rats that survived for 28 day...

Introduction/Background Neurogenic bladder, a condition associated with spinal cord injury (SCI), is characterized by uninhibited bladder contractions in response to bladder filling; these contractions reduce bladder capacity and urinary continence. Few studies have investigated the amplitude-dependent effects of dorsal genital nerve stimulation (G...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) typically causes permanent brain tissue damage, which leads to permanent severe voiding dysfunction. Urinary retention is often refractory to standard therapies, and most patients require self-catheterization, which results in frequent urinary tract infections and reduces quality of life. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) mi...

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and compare the potential of four DBS targets in rats for regulating bladder activity: the periaqueductal gray (PAG), locus coeruleus (LC), rostral pontine reticular nucleus (PnO), and pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg). Methods: A bipolar stimulating electrode was imp...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178186.].

Objective Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major brain injury type commonly caused by traffic accidents, falls, violence, or sports injuries. To obtain mechanistic insights about TBI, experimental animal models such as weight-drop-induced TBI in rats have been developed to mimic closed-head injury in humans. However, the relationship between the m...

Full blot images for Western blot presented in Fig 7. (PDF)

Whole blot images of Western blots presented in Fig 8. (PDF)

The measured value of impact force, acceleration, deceleration and peak to peak acceleration during weight-drop under various impact height. (PDF)

Supplementary video of weight drop induced traumatic brain injury model. The demonstrated video was recorded at 300 frames/s during weight-drop experiment. The acceleration, impact force, and displacement during the impact were measured using an accelerometer, a pressure sensor, and a high-speed camera, respectively. (WMV)

Background: Long-term, sustained progress is necessary in drop foot rehabilitation. The necessary inconvenient body training movements, the return trips to the hospital and repetitive boring training using functional electrical simulation (FES) often results in the patient suspending their training. The patient's drop foot rehabilitation will not...

Abnormal upper limb function seriously impacts a patient’s daily life. After receiving emergency treatment patient should receive function-rebuilding and recovery training. The objective of this study is to integrate IR-camera, an infrared emitter, with a conventional passive hand skateboard training device for conventional upper limb training and...

Aim: To quantify the effects of pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) electrical stimulations of the pudendal and pelvic nerves on the bladder function of rats with detrusor overactivity. Methods: All rats were pretreated with a continuous transvesical infusion of 0.5% acetic acid (AA) for inducing detrusor overactivity. Intravesical pressure was recorded...

Abtract Objective. Few studies have investigated the feasibility of using chronic pudendal neuromodulation for improving voiding function in patients with diabetes who are also experiencing urinary retention. The present study investigated the effects of chronic electrical stimulation (ES) of the sensory branch of the pudendal nerve on voiding func...

The role of 5-HT1A receptors in regulating voiding functions remains unclear, particularly regarding the urine flow rate (UFR) during voiding. This study examined the effects of 5-HT1A receptors on regulating urethral functions in female rats, and investigated underlying modulatory mechanisms. Intravesical pressure (IVP), external urethral sphincte...

Purpose This study investigated the relationship between peripheral nerve conduction velocity (NCV) and balance performance in older adults with diabetes. Methods Twenty older adults with diabetes were recruited to evaluate the NCV of their lower limbs and balance performance. The balance assessments comprised the timed up and go (TUG) test, Berg b...

Background: A patient whose spinal cord was damaged due to accident may result in Tetraplegia or lose the ability to control his/her daily living environment. Currently, patients must use an invasive tool tongue movement, to help the patient communicate with the external environment. Objective: This study designed a non-invasive tongue movement...

[Purpose] Upper extremity rehabilitation after an injury is very important. This study proposes radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to improve and enhance the effectiveness of the upper extremity rehabilitation. [Subjects and Methods] People use their upper extremities to conduct daily activities. When recovering from injuries, many pa...

[Purpose] The introduction of emerging technologies such as the wireless Blobo bluetooth ball with multimedia features can enhance wrist physical therapy training, making it more fun and enhancing its effects. [Methods] Wrist injuries caused by fatigue at work, improper exercise, and other conditions are very common. Therefore, the reconstruction o...

[Purpose] Stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases are major causes of adult mobility problems. Because stroke immobilizes the affected body part, balance training uses the healthy body part to complete the target movement. The muscle utilization rate on the stroke affected side is often reduced which further hinders affected side functional recov...

Background/purpose: Few studies have investigated the feasibility of using pudendal neuromodulation to regulate bladder function in spinal cord-injured (SCI) animals. The present study aimed to determine the effects of electrical activation of the pudendal sensory branch on improving voiding functions in rats 6 weeks after a spinal cord injury and...

Recent advances in microelectronics and wireless transmission technology have led to the development of various implantable sensors for real-time monitoring of bladder conditions. Although various sensing approaches for monitoring bladder conditions were reported, most such sensors have remained at the laboratory stage due to the existence of vital...

This study aims to assess the efficacy and benefits of pelvic rehabilitation programs in terms of functional outcomes and quality of life for patients with fecal incontinence and defecation disorders after rectal cancer surgery. This was a prospective, observational study. Data included in this study were collected at a single institution. Patients...

Needle-stick injuries accounts for a great proportion of all medical accidents in developing and undeveloped countries. The main cause of needle-stick accident injuries is the medical personnel's "recovering" the needle action after injection. This study applies an electronic technique to the needling instrument for the purpose of automatically det...

Taiwan has come to an aging society, dementia of the elderly has become a major concern of the community. The symptom causes a significant reduction of the hand-eye coordination and memory abilities. The hand-eye coordination ability involves many nerve systems. The brain perceives things through the eyes and acquires various information through th...

Hintergrund Der weltweite Bedarf an Spenderhornhäuten übersteigt die Verfügbarkeit von humanem Spendergewebe bei Weitem. Aktuelle Bemühungen zielen deshalb auf die Identifikation und Analyse von potenziellem Ersatzgewebe, wie z. B. dezellularisierten Kollagenmatrizes. Ziel der Arbeit Die durchsichtige Schuppe des Tilapia-Fisches (Oreochromis mos...

Background Articles in the literature describing the association between body composition and osteoporosis in subjects with poliomyelitis are scarce. Objective To assess the relationship between body composition and femoral neck osteoporosis or osteopenia in adults with previous polio. Method After excluding postmenopausal women, 44 polio (mean a...

This study extensively examined the role of a 5-HT1A receptor in controlling voiding function in anesthetized male rats. A simultaneous recording of the intravesical pressure (IVP), external urethral sphincter (EUS)-electromyography (EMG), and urine flow rate (UFR) during continuous cystometry was utilized. 8-Hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)-tetralin (...

Background: Hemiplegia can cause accidental falls, as the patients place their arms in front of their chests or next to the hips when they walk. This is due to limitations in the ability to swing their arms during walking. Objective: This study proposes a functional electrical stimulator approach in order to improve the foot drop and abnormal mo...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the ways in which stroke-induced posterior parietal cortex (PPC) lesions affect reactive postural responses and whether providing auditory cues modulates these responses. Design: Seventeen hemiparetic patients after stroke, nine with PPC lesions (PPCLesion) and eight with intact PPCs (PPCSp...

Whether post-stroke spasticity is associated with autonomic status is unclear. The purpose of our study was to determine whether spasticity in post-stroke patients is associated with heart rate variability (HRV), an indicator of sympathetic and parasympathetic regulation. To determine whether HRV is associated with spasticity in post-stroke patient...

Daily life movements require balance ability. Good balance control is closely related to body stability and its development. Therefore, balance training is necessary for any age group.OBJECTIVE: This study proposes the combination of Kinect and virtual reality to build an information platform of interactive scenarios, for practice and evaluation of...

People use upper limbs to conduct daily activities. When recovering from injuries, many patients neglect the importance of rehabilitation, which results in degraded function. Rehabilitation after treatment of an injury is very important. This study proposes to improve and enhance the effectiveness of rehabilitation practice. A patient record of the...

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the relative efficacy of irradiation using a device containing a far-infrared emitting ceramic powder (cFIR) for the management of chronic myofascial neck pain compared with a control treatment. Design: This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study. Participants: Th...

Objective: Tele-assessment techniques can provide healthcare professionals with easily accessible information regarding patients' clinical progress. Recently, kinematic analysis systems have been used to assess rehabilitative outcomes in stroke patients. Kinematic systems, however, are not compatible with tele-assessment. The objective of our stud...

In this study, we examined the possibility that 5-HT1A receptors may underlie sexually dimorphic mechanisms affecting regulation of urethral functions in anesthetized rats. Simultaneous recordings of the intravesical pressure under isovolumetric conditions (isovolumetric IVP), external urethral sphincter-electromyography (EUS-EMG), and urethral per...

Purpose We aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effects of near-infrared radiation on patients with chronic neck pain using various subjective and objective outcome measures. Methods Thirty participants with chronic neck pain between 20 years and 65 years of age were divided into two groups. Participants in Group A received near-infrared therapy ever...

Summary BACKGROUND: Older patients with chronic diseases often take multiple prescription drugs, increasing their risk of adverse health events. However, polypharmacy remains ill-defined. To investigate the impact of number of drugs prescribed on potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) and the associated risk factors in older outpatients with ch...

The aim of this study was to develop a new closed-loop control strategy for improving bladder emptying and verify its performance in animal experiments. Two channel outputs of electrical currents triggered by intravesical pressure (IVP)-feedback signals were set to automatically regulate the rat's pudendal nerve for selective nerve stimulation and...

The present invention provides a method for restoring native chondrocyte phenotype and functions of, and/or increasing type II collagen as well as aggrecan mRNA expression levels and GAG accumulation level in dedifferentiated chondrocytes which have been subcultured and expanded in vitro, which comprising culturing the said dedifferentiated chondro...

Aims: Diabetic cystopathy is typically manifested as bladder voiding dysfunction, and numerous patients are refractory to standard therapy. In this study, we determined whether electrical stimulation (ES) of the sensory branch of the pudendal nerve could engage an augmenting reflex and thereby improve bladder emptying in a diabetic animal model wi...

Wrist diseases, also known as “mama hand”, “mouse hand” or “keyboard hand”, are commonly seen and easily overlooked symptoms in daily life. The diseases are mostly related to incorrect exercise or excessive force imposed on hands, leading to tenosynovitis or carpal tunnel syndrome. To alleviate the symptoms or even to recover, besides drug treatmen...

This study evaluated the effects of interactive video-game based (IVGB) training on the balance of older adults. The participants of the study included 30 community-living persons over the age of 65. The participants were divided into 2 groups. Group A underwent IVGB training for 6 weeks and received no intervention in the following 6 weeks. Group...

Flavonoids are natural compounds derived from plants and some of them have shown to inhibit osteoclast formation, implicating their potential use for the treatment of osteoporosis. Conventionally, the screening of anti-osteoclast agents is a tedious process that requires visual counting the number of osteoclasts produced. The purpose of this study...

: Adequately addressing the scope of disability in patients with chronic neck pain is crucial in a clinical setting. The aim of this study was to determine the disease profile of patients with chronic neck pain and to analyze the factors related to the level of disability. : We studied 121 patients with chronic neck pain. The following data were ob...

Purpose The external urethral sphincter (EUS) is regarded as an important structure involved in urinary continence and micturition, so a rodent animal model was employed to investigate these urinary functions. However, few studies have compared the physiological and histochemical characteristics of the EUS between male and female rats in detail. Th...

Voltage-controlled neuromuscular electrical stimulation has been considered to be safer in noninvasive applications notwithstanding the fact that voltage-controlled devices purportedly generate forces less predictable than their current-controlled equivalents. This prompted us to evaluate relevant electrical parameters to determine whether forces i...

This study examined the effects of a 5-HT(1A) receptor agonist (8-OH-DPAT) on external urethral sphincter (EUS) activity in urethane-anesthetized rats. An EUS electromyogram (EMG) and intravesical pressure (IVP) were simultaneously recorded during continuous cystometrographic monitoring, to provide a quantitative evaluation of EUS activity and uret...

The purpose of this study was to develop an ICF core set for post-stroke disability assessment and verification of bio-psycho-social problems. Using the Delphi method, a consensus process was conducted. In total, 24 multidisciplinary experts from different institutions completed the consensus process. The questionnaire for the study comprised 144 I...

The efficacy and tolerability of 500-730 kDa sodium hyaluronate (Hyalgan®) for treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) pain has been established in clinical trials, but few data are available in the Asian population. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, multicenter, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of this preparation...

Provocative tests are useful in diagnosing biceps tendon tendinitis. This is the first study to establish the reliability of these tests by comparing the resuts with musculoskeletal ultrasound (US) findings. This study examined 125 patients (69 women and 56 men) and 143 shoulders with shoulder pain. Yergason's test, Speed's test and a bicipital gro...

To determine whether bilateral electrical stimulation (BiES) of the transected pudendal sensory nerves could further enhance the voiding efficiency beyond that produced by unilateral electrical stimulation (UniES) of transected pudendal afferents in rats with urinary retention. The efficiency of bladder emptying with either UniES or BiES of pudenda...

This study investigated the effects of ultrasound (US) at different frequencies on fracture healing over a three-week period in a rabbit fibular fracture model. Forty-five adult New Zealand White rabbits were divided into five groups: a control group and four groups treated with US frequencies of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 MHz (0.5 W/cm(2), 200-μs burst...

The limited source of healthy primary chondrocytes restricts the clinical application of tissue engineering for cartilage repair. Therefore, method to maintain or restore the chondrocyte phenotype during in vitro expansion is essential. The objective of this study is to establish the beneficial effect of ECM molecules on restoring the re-expression...

To measure the changes in the total and regional body fat mass, and assess the clinical usefulness of the body mass index (BMI) in detecting overweight subjects with sequelae of poliomyelitis. Prospective, cross-sectional study. General community. Subjects with poliomyelitis (n=17; age range, 42-57y; mean, 47y; 12 men, 5 women) and able-bodied peop...

Osteochondritis dissecans of the talus is a potential cause of chronic post-traumatic ankle pain. Soft-tissue ultrasound (US) traditionally is rarely used to detect intra-articular lesions. With two case reports, we suggest that a unique soft-tissue US picture, large amount of ankle joint effusion without ligament injury and no obvious bone fractur...

Frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis, is a disease of chronic inflammation and fibrosis involving the shoulder joints. The disease is challenging in clinical practice due to painful treatment course, with disease evolution usually lasting weeks or even months, causing significant discomfort and functional loss. Botulinum toxin (BTX) has been dis...

Although serotonergic agents have been used to treat patients with stress urinary incontinence, the characteristics of the external urethral sphincter (EUS) activity activated by 5-HT receptors have not been extensively studied. This study examined the effects of the 5-HT(1A) receptor agonist, 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT), on...

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) cycling ergometer has been utilized in recent decades for rehabilitation by sequentially stimulating the large leg-actuating muscles of paralyzed leg muscles to produce cyclical leg motion. A number of studies reported physiological adaptations after regular FES-cycling exercise (FESCE) training in subjects w...

It is still unclear whether diabetic mellitus (DM) is associated with rotator cuff lesions. The object of this retrospective study was to compare the ultrasonographic (US) findings of rotator cuffs in diabetic patients with those of nondiabetic patients with chronic shoulder pain. In total, 419 patients (80 diabetic, 339 nondiabetic) who had chroni...

To compare botulinum toxin type A injection with corticosteroid injection in the treatment of tennis elbow. In this prospective, randomized, double-blind, drug-controlled trial,19 affected elbows of 16 patients were randomly assigned to receive injection with botulinum toxin type A (Botox group) or triamcinolone acetonide (steroid group). We used t...

The effects of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) on the differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were investigated in this study. hMSCs were subjected to LIPUS with or without dexamethasone/transforming growth factor-beta1 (TD) or bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) and the effects of this treatment were assessed. TD-treated h...

We evaluated bilateral femoral neck bone mineral densities (FNBMDs) in 32 men with poliomyelitis and their matched controls. Men with poliomyelitis had significantly lower FNBMD in both legs, and FNBMD was lowest in their shorter legs. Knee extensor strength and regular exercise were important predictive factors associated with decreased FNBMD. Peo...

To determine whether bone mineral density loss after spinal cord injury can be attenuated by an early intervention with functional electrical stimulation cycling exercises (FESCE) and to ascertain whether the effect persists after FESCE is discontinued. A prospective study. Twenty-four individuals with spinal cord injury, 26-52 days after spinal co...

To study the long-term changes in physical functional performance and quality of life in hemodialysis patients living in the community in Taiwan. This prospective study monitored 27 ambulatory hemodialysis patients for 16 months living in the community in Taiwan. Physical capacity (6-minute walk test, grip strength, pinch strength and chair-rising...