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. 2025 Mar 24:15:59-68.
doi: 10.33393/aop.2025.3301. eCollection 2025 Jan-Dec.

Mim-pong: a serious game for assessment and treatment of the lower limb in hemiparetic stroke patients

Fernando Lf Eichinger  1 , Fabrício Noveletto  2 , Susana C Domenech  3 , Thierry Moulin  4 , Yoshimasa Sagawa  4 , Antonio V Soares  1   4
Affiliations

Mim-pong: a serious game for assessment and treatment of the lower limb in hemiparetic stroke patients

Fernando Lf Eichinger et al. Arch Physiother. .

Abstract

Introduction: The motor impairment evidenced post-stroke results in limitations to performing activities of daily living (ADL), especially when it involves locomotion. The Serious Games (SG) are an interesting therapeutic option, as they allow the performance of exercises according to stroke treatment guidelines. However, there is little research exploring the evaluation potential of SG. This study aimed to evaluate the possible metric properties of the mim-pong SG in addition to the therapeutic effects.

Methods: Twenty-four hemiparetic stroke patients were divided into two non-randomized groups: the experimental group (EG) (n = 16) and the control group (CG) (n = 8). Participants were evaluated in terms of motor impairment (lower limb), muscle strength (MS), motor control, and functional mobility.

Results: The significant correlations observed between the score generated by the SG and clinical variables in both groups are highlighted, especially with MS (rho = 0.62-0.66; p = 0.000, and rho = 0.67-0.71; p = 0.002-0.005, for the experimental and CGs, respectively) and motor function of the lower limb for the EG (rho = 0.41, p = 0.018). In addition, the results indicated improvements in all variables in the EG, with superiority over the CG.

Conclusions: This study showed that the mim-pong serious game could be considered a potential resource for the assessment and treatment of hemiparetic stroke patients.

Keywords: Exercise therapy; Hemiparesis; Lower extremity; Rehabilitation; Serious games; Stroke.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: There is no conflict of interest regarding the present study.

Figures

FIGURE 1 -
FIGURE 1 -
The mim-pong SG main screen. A) Game control and settings; B) Game score components; C) Muscular strength data; D) Game session time elapsed. The figure was created by (7).
FIGURE 2 -
FIGURE 2 -
General ­diagram illustrating the basic units of the system used for the evaluation and treatment of patients.
FIGURE 3 -
FIGURE 3 -
Assessment protocol for motor control. The hit score values on the racquet are shown zoomed on the right side. The closer to the racquet’s center, the higher the score. The score is equal to zero if the ball does not hit the racquet. This figure was created by (19).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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