ICS Balance Platform

Fall Prevention

Postural instability is among the most common complaints physicians hear from their patients and the cost of fall related injuries is in fact becoming a severe public health issue. In the USA alone 1.6 million adults were treated for fall related injuries
in 2004.10-15 percent of emergency room visits were directly related to falls¹.

Risk of falling changes a person’s lifestyle since fall related injuries very often reduce mobility and independence. Many injuries can be prevented with an early diagnosis and treatment of the problem.

The ICS Balance Platform comes in three versions; Balance Screener, Balance Trainer and Full Clinical version. The system utilizes a fixed force plate to measure the vertical force put forth by the patient’s feet and assess the patient’s amount of postural sway.

Balance Screener

Balance Screener with the mCTSIB and LOS evaluates sensory contributions used for balance control.

Modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction and Balance (mCTSIB) provides an objectivemeasurement of sway when the patient is placed in 4 sensory conditions that were developed based on normal daily activities. This test cannot provide information regarding site of lesion/disorder or pattern of sensory dysfunction. However, it does provide information regarding if the patient needs further diagnostic testing. Limits of Stability (LOS) provides an objective measure of displacement of the patient’s center of gravity when the patient is asked to lean to 8 different postural positions.

Balance Trainer

Balance Trainer provides interactive training exercises with real-time monitoring of movement for the patient leading to better balance control. The following training protocols are available on the ICS Balance Platform:

• Eyes open/closed on firm surface

• Target practice – track the jumping target

• Pursuit – follow the moving target

• One-leg test – balance on one leg

• Foam cushion – balance on unstable surface

Full Clinical

Full Clinical provides custom balance assessment and gives the tester the ability to define any condition used for evaluation on the force plate and calculates the duration, path length, sway velocity, rectangle, variation (lateral),variation (a-p) and sway area for each condition. There are 6 definable conditions available. These conditions can be used for balance assessment or training. The Full Clinical versionalso includes all software features of the Balance Screener and the Balance Trainer.

¹ Roudsari BS, Ebel BE, Corso PS, et.al. (2005) The acute medical care costs of fall-related injuries among the U.S. older adults. Injury, Int J Care Injured 36: 1316-1322.