BACKGROUND Frenkel's ambulatory activity has been routinely employed by physiotherapists for rehabilitation of gait coordination, however, its immediate influence on blood pressure and heart rate has not been investigated. OBJECTIVE To investigate the acute effect of Frenkel's ambulatory activity on blood pressure and heart rate of chronic hemiparetic stroke survivors. METHOD Using a compar...

BACKGROUND There appears to be a dearth of published literature on the biopsychosocial predictors of community reintegration (CR) among stroke survivors. This study aims to investigate the clinical and psychosocial predictors of CR among stroke survivors three months post in-hospital discharge. METHODS Fifty-two stroke survivors took part in this prospective exploratory study. The participant...

CONTEXT Polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter gene (SERT) have been associated with mental illness. In people with long-term medical conditions, variants of the 5-HTTLPR and STin2 VNTR polymorphisms of SERT have been shown to confer a heightened vulnerability to comorbid depression. OBJECTIVE To determine whether the 5-HTTLPR, STin2 VNTR, and rs25531 polymorphisms of SERT are associated ...

BACKGROUND Stroke is the leading cause of disability among adults in the United States. The association of patients' pre-event socioeconomic status (SES) with post-stroke disability is not well understood. We examined the association of three indicators of SES--educational attainment, working status, and perceived adequacy of household income--with disability 3-months following an acute ischemi...

BACKGROUND Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can augment force generation and control in single leg joints in healthy subjects and stroke survivors. However, it is unknown whether these effects also result in improved force production and coordination during walking and whether electrode configuration influences these effects. OBJECTIVE We investigated the effect of tDCS using di...

Stroke disrupts motor, sensory, and cognitive systems in survivors. Unlike in physical impairments, assessment of cognitive function is often inadequate, as no standardized procedure to monitor cognitive recovery post stroke exists. We evaluated a number of novel task-orientated tools designed to assess subtle cognitive deficits (including memory, attention, and executive functioning) in a samp...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES although the functional impairments of stroke survivors are associated with poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL), few studies have demonstrated the impact of individual stroke deficits on the quality of life of survivors. In this study, we investigated the association between HRQoL and stroke-related deficits, especially with respect to the number and types of defic...

Insole pressure sensors capture the different forces exercised over the different parts of the sole when performing tasks standing up such as walking. Using data analysis and machine learning techniques, common patterns and strategies from different users to achieve different tasks can be automatically extracted. In this paper, we present the results obtained for the automatic detection of diff...

BACKGROUND Studies point to the lack of psychosocial support and rehabilitation services that are adjusted to the work-aged stroke survivors' specific needs in order to promote psychosocial well-being. The aim of the study was to illuminate the psychosocial challenges work-aged participants (i.e. aged 18-67 years) thematised during and after participating a dialogue-based psychosocial intervent...

BACKGROUND Stroke has a major impact on survivors including Health related Quality of life (HRQoL). HRQoL measurements are potentially more relevant to patients than measurements of impairments or disability and are an important index of outcome after stroke that can facilitate a broader description of disease and outcome. This study examined the factors associated with HRQoL of stroke survivor...