BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of gait training using body weight support on a treadmill compared with conventional gait training for people with subacute stroke who were unable to walk. METHODS This was a single-blind, randomized, controlled trial with a 6-month follow-up. Ninety-seven subjects were recruited within 6 weeks of stroke onset and were random...

Objective. To critically evaluate the studies that were conducted over the past 10 years and to assess the impact of virtual reality on static and dynamic balance control in the stroke population. Method. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials published between January 2006 and December 2015 was conducted. Databases searched were PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Studies must hav...

BACKGROUND Although free radicals have been reported to play a role in the expansion of ischemic brain lesions, the effect of free radical scavengers is still under debate. In this study, the temporal profile of ischemic stroke lesion sizes was assessed for more than one year to evaluate the effect of edaravone which might reduce ischemic damage. METHODS We sequentially enrolled acute ischemi...

Alterations in muscle protein turnover of the unaffected side of stroke patients could contribute to physical disability. We investigated whether hypercatabolic activity occurred in unaffected arm muscle and whether supplemented essential amino acids (EAAs) could limit muscle hypercatabolism (MH). Thirty-eight dysphagic subacute stroke subjects (<3 months after acute event) (29 males+9 females;...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive technique that could improve the rehabilitation outcomes in stroke, eliciting neuroplastic mechanisms. At the same time conflicting results have been reported in subacute phase of stroke, when neuroplasticity is crucial. The aim of this double-blind, randomized, and sham-controlled study was to determine whether a treatment with ca...

PURPOSE The right half-field eye-patching technique has been reported to be effective in reducing unilateral neglect (UN) and improving functional ability in stroke patients. This study investigated the efficacy of conventional treatment with right half-field eye patching in treating subacute stroke patients with UN, using a randomised controlled trial. METHOD Thirty-five inpatients with suba...

OBJECTIVE To correlate the resting metabolism of hand knob and hand function after stroke, diffuse tensor tractography (DTT) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose position emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) were used to evaluate constructible state of white matter tract and metabolic state of gray matter, respectively. METHODS A total of 17 patients were included in the study, who had suffered a stroke w...

Functional networks in resting-state fMRI are identified by characteristics of their intrinsic low-frequency oscillations, more specifically in terms of their synchronicity. With advanced aging and in clinical populations, this synchronicity among functionally linked regions is known to decrease and become disrupted, which may be associated with observed cognitive and behavioral changes. Previo...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate cardiac function using echocardiography in patients with stroke admitted to subacute rehabilitation units. DESIGN Retrospective, cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS A total of 750 consecutive patients with stroke who were admitted to a suburban rehabilitation hospital. Mean age 67.5 years (standard deviation (SD) 12.3 years). Mean time since stroke 36.7 days (SD 13.2 d...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effectiveness of voluntary trunk rotation and half-field eye-patching to treat patients with unilateral neglect in stroke. DESIGN Pre-post, day 60 follow-up, single-blinded randomized controlled trial. SETTING Single-centre inpatient rehabilitation hospital. SUBJECTS Sixty subacute patients with right hemisphere stroke having unilateral neglect within eight we...