The Impact of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy on Motor Recovery in Middle Cerebral Artery Infarction Having Cardiomegaly in an Intensive Care Unit

Stroke can be characterized by rapidly emerging neurological manifestations of global or focal impairment of neurological functionality, with consequences lasting a day or more or giving rise to mortality, with no significant etiology other than vascular origin. A middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarct is a form of stroke that develops when the MCA, one of the primary arteries providing blood to the brain, becomes blocked or obstructed. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is an emerging method that has mainly been utilized to rehabilitate stroke patients, especially upper extremities. According to recent advances, CIMT can also be applied to the lower limbs to increase insufficient limb balance, thereby facilitating gait. This case report is based on a 65-year-old female who had weakness in the left side of the body and slurring of speech and was diagnosed with an MCA infarct. She was managed with CIMT in the ICU along with conventional physiotherapy. The outcomes showed that CIMT is a beneficial approach for patients with stroke.

Task Oriented Training Activities Post Stroke Will Produce Measurable Alterations in Brain Plasticity Concurrent with Skill Improvement

BACKGROUND

Task-oriented training with upper extremity (UE) skilled movements has been established as a method to regain function post stroke. Although improved UE function has been shown after this type of therapy, there is minimal evidence that brain plasticity is associated with this training. The accelerated skill acquisition program (ASAP) is an example of an approach for promoting UE function using targeting movements.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effects of a single 2-hour session of ASAP in individuals with stroke on measures of brain plasticity as represented by corticospinal excitability (CE) and determine associations with reach-to-grasp (RTG) performance.

METHODS

Eighteen post-acute stroke patients were randomized to two groups. Experimental group (n = 9) underwent ASAP for 2 hours, while the control group (n = 9) received dose equivalent usual and customary care. Both groups were evaluated for CE and RTG performance prior to the session and then four times after training: immediately, 1 day, 6 days, and 12 days.

RESULTS

Significant alterations in CE were found in the peak-to-peak of Motor Evoked Potential amplitude of elbow and wrist extensor muscles in the lesioned hemisphere. The experimental group also demonstrated improved execution (shortened total movement time, TMT), feed-forward mechanism (deceleration time, DT) and planning (lengthened relative time to maximum hand aperture, RTApmax) compared to the control group.

CONCLUSION

Alterations in brain plasticity occur concurrently with improvements in RTG performance in post-acute stroke patients with mild impairment after a single 2-hour session of task-oriented training and persist for at least 12 days.

Eating and Grooming Abilities Predict Outcomes in Patients with Early Middle Cerebral Infarction: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Patients with cerebrovascular disorders are often forced to rest, with early prognosis made by bedside examination. However, overloading, for example, talking for a long time, may worsen the condition. We hypothesized that activities of daily living (ADL) from the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) that were actually performed regularly are useful to predict prognosis. The present study was aimed at determining the predictive items related to predicting prognosis from the status of early motor paralysis and ADL in patients with acute middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarction. We examined 367 patients with MCA infarction for Brunnstrom recovery stage (BRS) and FIM within 4 days of admission and modified the Rankin Scale before onset and just before discharge. Logistic regression analysis was used to compare two groups of patients based on their postdischarge destination (Home/another hospital or facility). The logistic regression analysis showed the following: BRS Hand: odds ratio (OR) 1.641 (95% CI 1.642 (1.336–2.017), p < 0.001); FIM Grooming: OR 1.279 (95% CI 1.220–1.807, p < 0.001); and FIM Eating: OR 1.280 (95% CI 1.102–1.488, p < 0.001). On the other hand, the ROC analysis showed the ROC area for Eating to be 0.830 (95% CI 0.787–0.874), for Grooming to be 0.81 (95% CI 0.765–0.865), and for BRS Hand to be 0.805 (95% CI 0.760–0.851). The BRS Hand and FIM Eating and Grooming domains were identified as predictive factors using the following cutoff points: BRS Hand stage V and FIM scores of 5 for Eating and 4 for Grooming. The cutoff points for the BRS Hand and FIM Eating revealed that, at a minimum, such patients can use the nonaffected hand. The presence of cognitive dysfunction or dysphagia affects these domains. Therefore, these results suggested that Eating and Grooming are appropriate as evaluation items.

Changes of the corticospinal tract in the unaffected hemisphere in stroke patients: A diffusion tensor imaging study

We investigated changes of the corticospinal tract (CST) in the unaffected hemisphere according to severity of the CST injury, using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). According to the severity of the CST injury in the affected hemisphere, the stroke patients showed different aspects of fiber volume increment of the CST in the unaffected hemisphere; the fiber volume was increased in the early phase in patients with mild injury of CST and later phase in patients with severe injury of CST.

Recovery mechanisms of somatosensory function in stroke patients: implications of brain imaging studies

Somatosensory dysfunction is associated with a high incidence of functional impairment and safety in patients with stroke. With developments in brain mapping techniques, many studies have addressed the recovery of various functions in such patients. However, relatively little is known about the mechanisms of recovery of somatosensory function. Based on the previous human studies, a review of 11 relevant studies on the mechanisms underlying the recovery of somatosensory function in stroke patients was conducted based on the following topics: (1) recovery of an injured somatosensory pathway, (2) peri-lesional reorganization, (3) contribution of the unaffected somatosensory cortex, (4) contribution of the secondary somatosensory cortex, and (5) mechanisms of recovery in patients with thalamic lesions. We believe that further studies in this field using combinations of diffusion tensor imaging, functional neuroimaging, and magnetoencephalography are needed. In addition, the clinical significance, critical period, and facilitatory strategies for each recovery mechanism should be clarified.