OBJECTIVE To analyze the effects of conventional rehabilitation combined with bilateral force-induced isokinetic arm movement training on paretic upper-limb motor recovery in patients with chronic stroke. DESIGN Single-cohort, pre- and postretention design. SETTING Rehabilitation department at a medical university. PARTICIPANTS Twenty subjects who had unilateral strokes at least 6 months ...

We used a robotic exoskeleton to quantify specific patterns of abnormal upper limb motor behaviour in people who have had transient ischemic attack (TIA). A cohort of people with TIA was recruited within two weeks of symptom onset. All individuals completed a robotic-based assessment of 8 behavioural tasks related to upper limb motor and proprioceptive function, as well as cognitive function. R...

Impaired motor and sensory function is common in the upper limb in humans after cerebrovascular stroke and it often remains as a permanent disability. Functional electrical stimulation therapy is known to enhance the motor function of the paretic hand; however, the mechanism of this enhancement is not known. We studied whether neural plasticity has a role in this therapy-induced enhancement of ...

BACKGROUND Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can improve upper limb hemiparesis after stroke but the mechanism underlying its efficacy remains elusive. rTMS seems to alter brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and such effect is influenced by BDNF gene polymorphism. OBJECTIVES To investigate the molecular effects of rTMS on serum levels of BDNF, its precursor proBDNF and ...

Brachial plexus injury is a rare complication during operation and anesthesia; it can occur as a result of various mechanisms such as inappropriate positioning, over-abduction and stretching the upper limbs. Brachial plexus injury can cause the poor function of the upper limb before recovery, and sometimes serious injury is unable to completely recovered the function permanently. Here, we repor...

Muscle synergies are considered to be building blocks underlying motor behaviors. The goal of this study is to explore an objective and effective method to assess the upper limb motor dysfunction of cerebral palsy (CP) children from the aspect of muscle synergy analysis. Fourteen CP children and 10 typically developed (TD) children were recruited to perform three similar upper limb motion tasks...

BACKGROUND Current outcome measures used in upper limb myoelectric prosthesis studies include clinical tests of function and self-report questionnaires on real-world prosthesis use. Research in other cohorts has questioned both the validity of self-report as an activity assessment tool and the relationship between clinical functionality and real-world upper limb activity. Previously,1 we report...

OBJECTIVE To assess long term effects at 1 year after stroke in patients who participated in an upper and lower limb intensity training programme in the acute and subacute rehabilitation phases. DESIGN A three group randomised controlled trial with repeated measures was used. METHOD One hundred and one patients with a primary middle cerebral artery stroke were randomly allocated to one of t...