An interventional study of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) and Standard Rehabilitation in Stroke, sponsored by Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, India. Not yet recruiting at 3 sites in India. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 99 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-23.
Sponsored by Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, India · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
This assessor-blinded, randomized, parallel-group feasibility trial will evaluate the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a home-based Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) system for lower-limb rehabilitation in adults recovering from stroke. The study will be conducted at two sites within the INSTRUCT Network in India.
Adults aged 18 years or older who are 1 month to 1 year post-stroke and have mild to moderate lower-limb weakness will be eligible to participate. A total of 70 participants will be randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to either a home-based FES intervention group or a control group receiving standard rehabilitation.
Participants in the FES group will receive training on safe and independent use of the FES device before commencing home treatment. FES will be delivered to selected lower-limb muscles, including the quadriceps, tibialis anterior, and hamstrings, for 30 minutes per session, 5 sessions per week, for 12 weeks. The intervention will be supported by a smartphone-based telerehabilitation platform that will provide remote clinician support, training, adherence monitoring, and troubleshooting. The FES system is being developed with IoT-enabled monitoring and ECG-based heart-rate safety monitoring to facilitate safe home use.
Participants in the control group will receive standard outpatient care and home-based rehabilitation without FES. Both groups will receive equivalent remote clinician contact and education.
The primary purpose of the study is to determine the feasibility of home-based FES, including recruitment, retention, adherence to prescribed treatment sessions, safety, and participants' ability to independently operate the device at home. Secondary evaluation will assess preliminary changes in functional walking ability using the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), measured at baseline and after 12 weeks.
The study is intended to generate feasibility and preliminary effectiveness data to inform the design of a future, adequately powered randomized controlled trial and to assess the potential for wider implementation of home-based FES rehabilitation for people recovering from stroke.
Stroke is a major cause of long-term disability and frequently results in impaired lower-limb motor function, reduced walking ability, and limitations in independent mobility. Although functional electrical stimulation (FES) is an established rehabilitation approach for activating peripheral nerves and muscles to facilitate functional movement, conventional FES-based rehabilitation is often delivered in clinical settings and may require repeated supervision, accurate electrode placement, and technical assistance. These requirements can limit access to rehabilitation, particularly for individuals who have difficulty attending frequent outpatient sessions.
This study will investigate the feasibility of delivering FES as a home-based rehabilitation intervention supported by a smartphone-based telerehabilitation platform. The project incorporates development and clinical evaluation of an indigenous FES system designed for home use. The system is being developed with features intended to support safe and independent use, including IoT-enabled monitoring of device use and an ECG-based heart-rate monitoring component. The accompanying smartphone platform is intended to facilitate remote training, clinician follow-up, adherence monitoring, safety monitoring, and troubleshooting.
Condition The study will include adults recovering from stroke, including ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, with lower-limb motor impairment. The study focuses on post-stroke lower-limb dysfunction and limitations in functional walking ability.
Study Design This is an assessor-blinded, randomized, parallel-group, active-controlled feasibility trial. The study will be conducted at two sites within the INSTRUCT Network in India. Eligible participants will be randomly allocated to either the home-based FES intervention or standard rehabilitation. Outcome assessment will be performed by assessors who are blinded to treatment allocation where feasible.
The project consists of two broad phases. The first phase involves development and validation of the home-based FES system at IIT Kharagpur. The development process includes engineering of the stimulation system, incorporation of safety and monitoring components, laboratory/bench validation, and preparation of units for clinical evaluation. The second phase involves implementation of the feasibility randomized controlled trial at participating clinical sites.
Before home use, participants allocated to the FES group will undergo structured training to establish safe and competent operation of the device. Training will include device orientation, electrode-placement instruction, safety procedures, supervised practice, and competency verification. The smartphone-based platform will support remote supervision and monitoring during the home-use period.
The feasibility study is intended primarily to establish whether the intervention can be delivered safely and practically in a home setting and whether participants can use the technology with limited direct clinical assistance. Information generated from recruitment, retention, adherence, safety, device usability, and preliminary functional outcomes will be used to refine the intervention and study procedures and to inform the design and sample-size planning of a subsequent fully powered randomized controlled trial.
The study also provides an opportunity to evaluate the integration of rehabilitation technology, remote clinical support, and home-based FES delivery within the Indian stroke rehabilitation setting. If feasibility criteria are met, the findings may support further evaluation and potential wider implementation of technology-enabled home rehabilitation for people with post-stroke disability.
8,255 studies on the registry are indexed under Stroke; 2,056 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 70 is above the median of 49 across 6,024 interventional studies indexed under Stroke.
Browse Stroke studies →Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, India is the lead sponsor of 12 studies on the registry; 5 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Short tests of memory and thinking, each scored out of 30. Lower scores suggest more difficulty; criteria give a range, either to include people with memory problems or to leave them out.
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
MMSE and MoCA
Short tests of memory and thinking, each scored out of 30. Lower scores suggest more difficulty; criteria give a range, either to include people with memory problems or to leave them out.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants will receive home-based FES for lower-limb rehabilitation for 12 weeks.
Device: Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)
Participants will receive standard outpatient care and home-based rehabilitation without FES.
Other: Standard Rehabilitation
FES will be applied to the quadriceps, tibialis anterior, and hamstrings for 30 minutes per session, 5 sessions per week, for 12 weeks, supported by a smartphone-based telerehabilitation platform for training, adherence monitoring, safety monitoring, and remote clinician support.
Participants will receive standard outpatient care and home-based rehabilitation without FES, with equivalent remote clinician contact and education.
6-minute walk test (6MWT)
The primary outcome of this study is 6MWT, a validated measure of functional walking endurance and lower limb mobility in stroke survivors. Participants will be instructed to walk at their usual pace along a flat, unobstructed path for six minutes, with total distance covered recorded in meters. The 6 MWT will be conducted at baseline and at the end of the intervention period after 12 weeks.
Time frame: Baseline 12 weeks
Recruitment rate
Recruitment will be assessed as the proportion of eligible participants who consent to participate in the study. The numbers approached, screened, eligible and enrolled will be recorded. Each site will aim to recruit an average of 1 or 2 participants per month.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 weeks.
Adherence rate
Adherence rate will be calculated as the number and proportion of prescribed sessions attended by each participant. We anticipate that 80 percent of participants will complete the total scheduled sessions.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 weeks.
Retention rate
Retention rate proportion of participants who complete the study through final assessment point to meet or exceed the minimal acceptable level of 85 percent across the full study duration.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 weeks.
Independent Use Ability
The feasibility of independent home-based FES use will be assessed by determining whether participants can safely and correctly don, operate, and remove the FES without direct clinician assistance. This will be monitored through observation during initial training sessions (video-supervised), self-reported ease of use using 5-point Likert scale, platform logs confirming successful device activation and completion of stimulation cycles and number of remote troubleshooting contacts required during the study. It will include total minutes of active FES use, average duration per session, and proportion of sessions in which the device was used as prescribed. An acceptable device usage rate will be defined as participants engaging in \>75% of the expected device on-time across all scheduled sessions.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 weeks.
Plan to share: No — Individual participant data will not be shared because the study protocol does not include a plan for sharing individual-level participant data. Study findings will be disseminated through scientific publications and presentations while protecting participant confidentiality and privacy.""Individual participant data will not be shared because the study protocol does not include a plan for sharing individual-level participant data. Study findings will be disseminated through scientific publications and presentations while protecting participant confidentiality and privacy.
Start is estimated for Sep 2026; primary completion for Aug 2029, 35 months later.
Of 3,108 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Stroke, half reached primary completion within 23 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 46. This study's planned 35 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 3,252 studies reached it within 23 months; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 46.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Aug 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, India