Fig. 3

The clinical scores, evaluated before the first (pre-assess) and after the 20th training session (post-assess), as well as the 3-month follow-up (3MFU), of the participants in both NMES-robotic hand and sleeve groups: (a) Fugl-Meyer Assessment for the upper limb, FMA full score, FMA shoulder/elbow scores (FMA-SE), and FMA wrist/hand scores (FMA-WH); (b) Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) scores; (c) Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) scores at the elbow, the wrist, and the fingers, presented as mean value with 2-time SE (error bar) in each evaluation session. The grey bars are for the sleeve group, and the black bars are for the hand group. The significant inter-group difference is indicated by the ‘*’ [P < 0.05, one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA)], and ‘#’ is used to indicate the significant intragroup difference [P < 0.05, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Bonferroni post hoc tests]