OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of arm motor impairment on actual arm use in the early post-stroke period and explore its association with self-care dependency. SUBJECTS Thirty-one patients recruited within the 30 first days after stroke. METHODS Motor impairment of the upper extremity was measured with Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment (FMA) and arm use was measured with accelerometry. Arm moveme...

OBJECTIVE To examine the associations between actual performance in daily life and function, capacity and self-perceived performance of the paretic upper limb following stroke. POPULATION Seventeen individuals with stroke. OUTCOME MEASURES Correlation coefficients between actual performance (measured with the Stroke-Upper Limb Activity Monitor), function (Fugl-Meyer Assessment), capacity (A...

[Purpose] Investigation of the efficacy of robot-mediated therapy of the upper limb in patients with chronic stroke, in task-oriented training activities of daily living in real environment. [Subjects and Methods] 20 patients, each more than one year post-stroke (13-71 months) received 20 sessions of upper limb robot-mediated therapy. No other treatment was given. Each therapy session consisted...

Inpatient rehabilitation has been traditionally employed in developed countries, while in developing countries, outpatient rehabilitation is the rule. The purpose of this study was to compare the patterns of recovery of upper extremity (UE) function, global impairment and independence in activities of daily living (ADL) during the first month after ischemic stroke in inpatient (United States) a...

[Purpose] The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of mirror therapy combined with exercise tasks on the function of the upper limbs and activities of daily living. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-five stroke patients who were receiving physical therapy at K Hospital in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, were classified into a mirror therapy group (n=12) and a conventional therapy group ...

This case series examined the feasibility and efficacy of a modified constraint induced therapy (CIT) protocol administered on an outpatient basis. The Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Motor Recovery After Stroke (Fugl), Action Research Arm Test (ARA), Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), and Motor Activity Log (MAL) were administered to six patients between 2 and 6 months poststroke (CVA) exhibiting stabl...

In this study, we compared the responsiveness and validity of the Box and Block Test (BBT), the Nine-Hole Peg Test (NHPT), and the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT). We randomized 59 patients with stroke into one of three rehabilitation treatments for 3 weeks. We administered six outcome measures (BBT, NHPT, ARAT, Fugl-Meyer Assessment [FMA], Motor Activity Log [MAL], and Stroke Impact Scale [SIS...

Therapeutic functional electrical stimulation has been shown to be effective in improving upper limb function post-stroke and when stimulation is associated with a patient’s own voluntary activation the effect is enhanced. This paper presents results from the end phase of a feasibility study using implanted microstimulators with a closed-loop control system. The system used sensors (goniometer,...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether multiple sessions of 1-Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) facilitates the effect of repetitive facilitation exercises on hemiplegic upper-limb function in chronic stroke patients. DESIGN Randomized double-blinded crossover study. PATIENTS Eighteen patients with hemiplegia of the upper limb. METHODS Patients were assigned to 2 groups: a ...

PURPOSE To test whether diffusion tensor imaging could evaluate potential motor capability of patients with chronic cerebral infarction. METHODS We used constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) as a rehabilitation, which reveals potential motor capability. We also investigated the relationship between the outcome of CIMT and the ratio between fractional anisotropy values (rFA) in affected a...