To reduce the health care burden of strokes, the Taiwan Department of Health launched the Pilot Scheme of the Health Policy in Stroke Adjuvant Acupuncture Therapy (HPSAAT) in 2006. This cross-sectional, hospital-based, match-controlled study at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center during 2006∼2008 retrospectively evaluated the clinical characteristics of acute and subacute isch...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) negatively impacts stroke outcome. Near-infrared spectroscopy showed the acute cerebral hemodynamic effects of SDB. METHODS Eleven patients (7 men, age 61±13 years) with acute/subacute middle cerebral artery stroke (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score 10±7) and SDB (apnea-hypopnea index 32±28/hour) were assessed with nocturn...

[Purpose] This study was conducted in order to investigate the importance of trunk muscle strength in stroke patients. By comparing the thicknesses of the abdominal wall muscles through ultrasonography, relative to the duration of illness, the results of the objective data were applied. [Methods] Thirty stroke patients were divided into three groups including an acute phase group participating ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the time window, duration and intensity of optimal speech and language therapy applied to aphasic patients with subacute stroke in our hospital. The study consisted of 33 patients being hospitalized for stroke rehabilitation in our hospital with first stroke but without previous history of speech and language therapy. Sixteen sessions of impairment-based...

Background Muscle strength is usually measured in individuals with stroke with Portable dynamometers (gold standard). However, no studies have investigated the reliability, the standard error of measurement (SEM) and the minimal detectable difference (MDD95%) of the dynamometry for the measurement of hand grip, pinch grip and trunk strength in subjects with subacute stroke. Objective 1) To in...

OBJECTIVE To quantify the cerebral OEF at different phases of stroke-like episodes in patients with mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) by using MRI. METHODS We recruited 32 patients with MELAS confirmed by gene analysis. Conventional MRI scanning, as well as functional MRI including arterial spin labeling and oxygen extraction fraction im...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Organized acute stroke treatment reduces mortality, functional deficits, and the need of institutionalization after stroke. It is largely unknown whether the effects of treatment are due to early or subacute efforts. The aim of this randomized, controlled study was to test the hypothesis that rehabilitation of stroke patients in the subacute phase in a hospital rehabilita...

objective: hashimoto encephalopathy (he) is known as a steroid-responsive encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroiditis or nonvascular inflammation-related autoimmune meningoencephalitis. the average age of onset of he is approximately 50 years; and it is more common in women. the onset of he may be acute or subacute. the course of most he cases is relapsing and remitting, which is simi...

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate the efficacy of the balance control trainer (BCT), developed for training patients with balance problems, as a balance assessment tool in subacute stroke patients. METHODS A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out on 38 subacute stroke patients in their first episode of a stroke, and having the ability to maintain a standing position without aid for at least...

OBJECTIVE To compare the outcome of an early application of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) combined with traditional dysphagia therapy (TDT) versus traditional dysphagia therapy only in acute/subacute ischemic stroke patients with moderate to severe dysphagia by videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS). METHODS Fifty-seven dysphagic stroke patients were enrolled in a VFSS within...