The changes of neuroactivity of Tui Na (Chinese massage) at Hegu acupoint on sensorimotor cortex in stroke patients with upper limb motor dysfunction: a fNIRS study.

BACKGROUND: Tui Na (Chinese massage) is a relatively simple, inexpensive, and non-invasive intervention, and has been used to treat stroke patients for many years in China. Tui Na acts on specific parts of the body which are called meridians and acupoints to achieve the role of treating diseases. Yet the underlying neural mechanism associated with Tui Na is not clear due to the lack of detection methods. OBJECTIVE: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to explore the changes of sensorimotor cortical neural activity in patients with upper limb motor dysfunction of stroke and healthy control groups during Tui Na Hegu Point. METHODS: Ten patients with unilateral upper limb motor dysfunction after stroke and eight healthy subjects received Tui Na. fNIRS was used to record the hemodynamic data in the sensorimotor cortex and the changes in blood flow were calculated based on oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb), the task session involved repetitive Tui Na on Hegu acupoint, using a block design [six cycles: rest (20 seconds); Tui Na (20 seconds); rest (30 seconds)]. The changes in neural activity in sensorimotor cortex could be inferred according to the principle of neurovascular coupling, and the number of activated channels in the bilateral hemisphere was used to calculate the lateralization index. RESULT: 1. For hemodynamic response induced by Hegu acupoint Tui Na, a dominant increase in the contralesional primary sensorimotor cortex during Hegu point Tui Na of the less affected arm in stroke patients was observed, as well as that in healthy controls, while this contralateral pattern was absent during Hegu point Tui Na of the affected arm in stroke patients. 2. Concerning the lateralization index in stroke patients, a significant difference was observed between lateralization index values for the affected arm and the less affected arm (P < 0.05). Wilcoxon tests showed a significant difference between lateralization index values for the affected arm in stroke patients and lateralization index values for the dominant upper limb in healthy controls (P < 0.05), and no significant difference between lateralization index values for the less affected arm in stroke patients and that in healthy controls (P = 0.36). CONCLUSION: The combination of Tui Na and fNIRS has the potential to reflect the functional status of sensorimotor neural circuits. The changes of neuroactivity in the sensorimotor cortex when Tui Na Hegu acupoint indicate that there is a certain correlation between acupoints in traditional Chinese medicine and neural circuits.

Virtual reality and motor imagery for early post-stroke rehabilitation.

BACKGROUND: Motor impairment is a common consequence of stroke causing difficulty in independent movement. The first month of post-stroke rehabilitation is the most effective period for recovery. Movement imagination, known as motor imagery, in combination with virtual reality may provide a way for stroke patients with severe motor disabilities to begin rehabilitation. METHODS: The aim of this study is to verify whether motor imagery and virtual reality help to activate stroke patients' motor cortex. 16 acute/subacute (< 6 months) stroke patients participated in this study. All participants performed motor imagery of basketball shooting which involved the following tasks: listening to audio instruction only, watching a basketball shooting animation in 3D with audio, and also performing motor imagery afterwards. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded for analysis of motor-related features of the brain such as power spectral analysis in the [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] frequency bands and spectral entropy. 18 EEG channels over the motor cortex were used for all stroke patients. RESULTS: All results are normalised relative to all tasks for each participant. The power spectral densities peak near the [Formula: see text] band for all participants and also the [Formula: see text] band for some participants. Tasks with instructions during motor imagery generally show greater power spectral peaks. The p-values of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for band power comparison from the 18 EEG channels between different pairs of tasks show a 0.01 significance of rejecting the band powers being the same for most tasks done by stroke subjects. The motor cortex of most stroke patients is more active when virtual reality is involved during motor imagery as indicated by their respective scalp maps of band power and spectral entropy. CONCLUSION: The resulting activation of stroke patient's motor cortices in this study reveals evidence that it is induced by imagination of movement and virtual reality supports motor imagery. The framework of the current study also provides an efficient way to investigate motor imagery and virtual reality during post-stroke rehabilitation.

A feasibility randomized controlled trial of a NICU rehabilitation program for very low birth weight infants.

Motor disability is common in children born preterm. Interventions focusing on environmental enrichment and emotional connection can positively impact outcomes. The NICU-based rehabilitation (NeoRehab) program consists of evidence-based interventions provided by a parent in addition to usual care. The program combines positive sensory experiences (vocal soothing, scent exchange, comforting touch, skin-to-skin care) as well as motor training (massage and physical therapy) in a gestational age (GA) appropriate fashion. To investigate the acceptability, feasibility and fidelity of the NeoRehab program in very low birthweight (VLBW) infants. All interventions were provided by parents in addition to usual care. Infants (≤ 32 weeks' GA and/or ≤ 1500 g birthweight) were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial comparing NeoRehab to usual care (03/2019-10/2020). The a priori dosing goal was for interventions to be performed 5 days/week. The primary outcomes were the acceptability, feasibility and fidelity of the NeoRehab program. 36 participants were randomized to the intervention group and 34 allocated to usual care. The recruitment rate was 71% and retention rate 98%. None of the interventions met the 5 days per week pre-established goal. 97% of participants documented performing a combination of interventions at least 3 times per week. The NeoRehab program was well received and acceptable to parents of VLBW infants. Programs that place a high demand on parents (5 days per week) are not feasible and goals of intervention at least 3 times per week appear to be feasible in the context of the United States. Parent-provided motor interventions were most challenging to parents and alternative strategies should be considered in future studies. Further studies are needed to evaluate the relationship between intervention dosing on long term motor outcomes.

[HE Xingwei's exploration and experience in the pathogenesis and treatment of motor impairment of the trunk after stroke].

In the paper, it is introduced professor HE Xingwei's recognition on the pathogenesis and professor HE's experience in the treatment of the motor impairment of the trunk after stroke. Professor He believes that the motor impairment of the trunk after stroke is the essential factor affecting the rehabilitation in stroke. The motor impairment of the trunk after stroke results from brain marrow damage and spiritual impairment. Hence, regaining the consciousness and promoting the circulation of the governor vessel are the basic principles of the treatment, named regulating the mind and controlling qi, benefiting qi and warming yang, tonifying the kidney and filling up the essence, and promoting the circulation of the governor vessel. Those four therapeutic methods are equally important. Acupuncture, moxibusiton and herbal medicine are applied in combination in the treatment. Additionally, the psychotherapy and rehabilitation are the accessory therapies.

Graded motor imagery for patients with stroke: a non-randomized controlled trial of a new approach.

BACKGROUND: Graded motor imagery (GMI) is a new approach that is thought to promote graded cortical brain activation and may promote motor recovery after stroke. AIM: This non-randomized controlled trial investigated the feasibility and clinical effect of GMI in motor recovery after stroke. DESIGN: Non-randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Inpatient subjects of neurorehabilitation hospital. POPULATION: Twenty-eight patients (i.e. 14 experimental and 14 control matched) with first-ever stroke. METHODS: Patients were assessed before and after a 4-week intervention. Assessors were blinded to the protocol. The experimental group underwent 20 sessions (1-hour each) based on GMI principles; the control group received the same amount of conventional rehabilitation. Primary outcomes were Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) and the 66-points motor section of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA). RESULTS: Groups were comparable under demographical and clinical features. Mean duration since stroke was 19 weeks. Patients were satisfied and adhered well to the protocol. Ten patients in the GMI group and four in the control group reached the minimal clinically important difference. Mean (SD) improvement in the GMI group was 0.72 (0.5) for WMFT, and 10.3 (8.9) points for FMA. The control group improved a mean (SD) of 0.21 (0.35) points at WMFT and 2.7 (0.35) points at FMA. Between-group analysis shows that GMI provided significantly greater improvements for both motor functions at WMFT (P=0.05) and in the pain section of FMA (P=0.006), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: GMI is a feasible treatment for stroke patients with better outcomes than conventional therapy. A randomized controlled trial is warranted to minimise risk of selection bias. CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: Clinicians should implement GMI treatment in their clinical practice, being a feasible, clinically relevant, costless, and easy-to-do treatment.

[The experience with the application of the selective electro-stimulation impacts in the children presenting with the disturbances of the locomotor function].

AIM: The objective of the present study was the improvement of the effectiveness of medical rehabilitation of the children presenting with the disturbances of the locomotor function using a «LymphaVision¼ apparatus for the selective electrical stimulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 42 patients with movement disorders divided into two groups depending on the method of non-drug therapy. The main group was comprised of the patients receiving the treatment by electrical stimulation with the use of the «LymphaVision¼ apparatus while the remaining patients made up the group of comparison (they were treated with by means of Vermel electrophoresis with the use of a 1% sodium bromide solution). The increase of the muscular strength evaluated based on the scoring system and the number of motor skills were used as the criteria of the effectiveness of the treatment. The applied Statistica for Windows package, version 6.0 («StatSoft¼, USA). Was employed for the statistical analysis of the data obtained. The significance and number of differences between two independent samples of the quantitative features were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test. The Wilcoxon matched pairs test was used to compare the two matched groups. RESULTS: The children comprising the group treated by means of selective exposure to electrical stimulation with the use of the «LymphaVision¼ apparatus in the course of the rehabilitation process exhibited a significant increase in the strength of the muscles of the lower extremities and the trunk over the baseline values (p=0.003 and p=0.04 respectively) and acquired a significantly greater number of the new motor skills (p=0.02). CONCLUSION: The application of the proposed method is characterized by the highly pronounced clinical efficiency. This approach is pathogenetically well-substantiated for the treatment of the children presenting with the locomotor disorders developing as the consequences of perinatal lesions in the central nervous system and promotes the restoration of the capabilities of the child's body, such as normalization of the muscle tone, increase of the motor activity and muscle strength.

[New aspects of neurorehabilitation: motor and language]. / Neues zur Neurorehabilitation: Motorik und Sprache.

Advancements in medical care over the last decades have contributed to a continuous decline in immediate post-stroke mortality. The flipside of this development is that patients surviving the initial stroke are forced to live with sometimes extreme functional motor and/or language limitations for the remaining life span. The following overview presents evidence-based neurorehabilitative interventions to promote motor and language recovery in the acute and chronic post-stroke stages. Therapeutic approaches comprise intensive training, neuropharmacological drugs and non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or direct current stimulation (tDCS). Additionally, an outlook on promising future interventions for stroke neurorehabilitation is provided.

Functional networks of motor inhibition in conversion disorder patients and feigning subjects.

The neural correlates of motor inhibition leading to paresis in conversion disorder are not well known. The key question is whether they are different of those of normal subjects feigning the symptoms. Thirteen conversion disorder patients with hemiparesis and twelve healthy controls were investigated using functional magnetic resonance tomography under conditions of passive motor stimulation of the paretic/feigned paretic and the non-paretic hand. Healthy controls were also investigated in a non-feigning condition. During passive movement of the affected right hand conversion disorder patients exhibited activations in the bilateral triangular part of the inferior frontal gyri (IFG), with a left side dominance compared to controls in non-feigning condition. Feigning controls revealed for the same condition a weak unilateral activation in the right triangular part of IFG and an activity decrease in frontal midline areas, which couldn't be observed in patients. The results suggest that motor inhibition in conversion disorder patients is mediated by the IFG that was also involved in inhibition processes in normal subjects. The activity pattern in feigning controls resembled that of conversion disorder patients but with a clear difference in the medial prefrontal cortex. Healthy controls showed decreased activity in this region during feigning compared to non-feigning conditions suggesting a reduced sense of self-agency during feigning. Remarkably, no activity differences could be observed in medial prefrontal cortex for patients vs healthy controls in feigning or non-feigning conditions suggesting self-agency related activity in patients to be in between those of non-feigning and feigning healthy subjects.

Rizotomia seletiva posterior ou tratamento neuroevolutivo bobath para a criança com disfunção neuromotora espástica? / Selective posterior rhizotomy or bobath neuro-developmental treatment for the child with spastic neuromotor dysfunction?

A espasticidade encontra-se geralmente presente em crianças com Disfunção Neuromotora. Neste estudo, abordamos duas formas de tratamento que atuam na normalização do tônus, sendo uma cirúrgica e outra conservadora. A Rizotomia Seletiva Posterior caracteriza-se pela secção parcial das raízes aferentes lombo-sacrais. Já o Tratamento Neuroevolutivo Bobath utiliza técnicas manuais para adequar o tônus e, concomitantemente, proporcionar funcionalidade a criança. O objetivo do trabalho consiste na análise criteriosa das duas terapias, visando avaliar a necessidade de submeter o paciente a um procedimento invasivo. Pretendemos, desta forma, ampliar os conhecimentos dos profissionais que constituem uma equipe multidisciplinar, no sentido de facilitar a escolha do tratamento adequado para estas crianças com Disfunção Neuromotora. Independentemente do método eleito, é importante ressaltar que a qualidade de vida deve ser sempre priorizada. Portanto, o paciente precisa ser tratado como um todo, adequando o tônus e permitindo-lhe função. E de extrema importância a avaliação criteriosa individualizada, uma vez que a Rizotomia Seletiva Posterior pode atuar come complemento a reabilitação, na promoção de melhores resultados.(AU)

Spasticity is generally found in children with Neuromotor Dysfunction. In this study, we approach two forms of treatment that act in the normalization of the tone: one surgical and other conservative. The Selective Posterior Rhizotomy is characterized by the partial section of the afferent lombosacral roots. As for the Bobath Neuro-developmental treatment, some manual techniques are used to adequate the tone, and accordingly, to allow the children to make use of their functions. The objective of this paper is to analyze carefully both therapies, aiming at evaluating the need to submit the patient to surgery. We intend to enlarge the knowledge of professionals taking part of a Multidiscipline team, to facilitate the choice of the best treatment for children with Neuromotor Dysfunction. Regardless of the method chosen it is important to remark that the quality of life must be a priority. Therefore, the patients have to be treated as a whole, enabling them to adequate tone and allowing them to use the function. It is extremely important to have a very careful individual evaluation, once the Selective Posterior Rhizotomy can be a complement to rehabilitation for a better outcome.(AU)

Rizotomia seletiva posterior ou tratamento neuroevolutivo bobath para a criança com disfunção neuromotora espástica? / Selective posterior rhizotomy or bobath neuro-developmental treatment for the child with spastic neuromotor dysfunction?

A espasticidade encontra-se geralmente presente em crianças com Disfunção Neuromotora. Neste estudo, abordamos duas formas de tratamento que atuam na normalização do tônus, sendo uma cirúrgica e outra conservadora. A Rizotomia Seletiva Posterior caracteriza-se pela secção parcial das raízes aferentes lombo-sacrais. Já o Tratamento Neuroevolutivo Bobath utiliza técnicas manuais para adequar o tônus e, concomitantemente, proporcionar funcionalidade a criança. O objetivo do trabalho consiste na análise criteriosa das duas terapias, visando avaliar a necessidade de submeter o paciente a um procedimento invasivo. Pretendemos, desta forma, ampliar os conhecimentos dos profissionais que constituem uma equipe multidisciplinar, no sentido de facilitar a escolha do tratamento adequado para estas crianças com Disfunção Neuromotora. Independentemente do método eleito, é importante ressaltar que a qualidade de vida deve ser sempre priorizada. Portanto, o paciente precisa ser tratado como um todo, adequando o tônus e permitindo-lhe função. E de extrema importância a avaliação criteriosa individualizada, uma vez que a Rizotomia Seletiva Posterior pode atuar come complemento a reabilitação, na promoção de melhores resultados.

Spasticity is generally found in children with Neuromotor Dysfunction. In this study, we approach two forms of treatment that act in the normalization of the tone: one surgical and other conservative. The Selective Posterior Rhizotomy is characterized by the partial section of the afferent lombosacral roots. As for the Bobath Neuro-developmental treatment, some manual techniques are used to adequate the tone, and accordingly, to allow the children to make use of their functions. The objective of this paper is to analyze carefully both therapies, aiming at evaluating the need to submit the patient to surgery. We intend to enlarge the knowledge of professionals taking part of a Multidiscipline team, to facilitate the choice of the best treatment for children with Neuromotor Dysfunction. Regardless of the method chosen it is important to remark that the quality of life must be a priority. Therefore, the patients have to be treated as a whole, enabling them to adequate tone and allowing them to use the function. It is extremely important to have a very careful individual evaluation, once the Selective Posterior Rhizotomy can be a complement to rehabilitation for a better outcome.