A critical time window for recovery extends beyond one-year post-stroke.

The impact of rehabilitation on post-stroke motor recovery and its dependency on the patient's chronicity remain unclear. The field has widely accepted the notion of a proportional recovery rule with a "critical window for recovery" within the first 3-6 mo poststroke. This hypothesis justifies the general cessation of physical therapy at chronic stages. However, the limits of this critical window have, so far, been poorly defined. In this analysis, we address this question, and we further explore the temporal structure of motor recovery using individual patient data from a homogeneous sample of 219 individuals with mild to moderate upper-limb hemiparesis. We observed that improvement in body function and structure was possible even at late chronic stages. A bootstrapping analysis revealed a gradient of enhanced sensitivity to treatment that extended beyond 12 mo poststroke. Clinical guidelines for rehabilitation should be revised in the context of this temporal structure. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Previous studies in humans suggest that there is a 3- to 6-mo "critical window" of heightened neuroplasticity poststroke. We analyze the temporal structure of recovery in patients with hemiparesis and uncover a precise gradient of enhanced sensitivity to treatment that expands far beyond the limits of the so-called critical window. These findings highlight the need for providing therapy to patients at the chronic and late chronic stages.

Counteracting learned non-use in chronic stroke patients with reinforcement-induced movement therapy.

BACKGROUND: After stroke, patients who suffer from hemiparesis tend to suppress the use of the affected extremity, a condition called learned non-use. Consequently, the lack of training may lead to the progressive deterioration of motor function. Although Constraint-Induced Movement Therapies (CIMT) have shown to be effective in treating this condition, the method presents several limitations, and the high intensity of its protocols severely compromises its adherence. We propose a novel rehabilitation approach called Reinforcement-Induced Movement Therapy (RIMT), which proposes to restore motor function through maximizing arm use. This is achieved by exposing the patient to amplified goal-oriented movements in VR that match the intended actions of the patient. We hypothesize that through this method we can increase the patients self-efficacy, reverse learned non-use, and induce long-term motor improvements. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, longitudinal clinical study with 18 chronic stroke patients. Patients performed 30 minutes of daily VR-based training during six weeks. During training, the experimental group experienced goal-oriented movement amplification in VR. The control group followed the same training protocol but without movement amplification. Evaluators blinded to group designation performed clinical measurements at the beginning, at the end of the training and at 12-weeks follow-up. We used the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for the upper extremities (UE-FM) (Sanford et al., Phys Ther 73:447-454, 1993) as a primary outcome measurement of motor recovery. Secondary outcome measurements included the Chedoke Arm and Hand Activity Inventory (CAHAI-7) (Barreca et al., Arch Phys Med Rehabil 6:1616-1622, 2005) for measuring functional motor gains in the performance of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), the Barthel Index (BI) for the evaluation of the patient's perceived independence (Collin et al., Int Disabil Stud 10:61-63, 1988), and the Hamilton scale (Knesevich et al., Br J Psychiatr J Mental Sci 131:49-52, 1977) for the identification of improvements in mood disorders that could be induced by the reinforcement-based intervention. In order to study and predict the effects of this intervention we implemented a computational model of recovery after stroke. RESULTS: While both groups showed significant motor gains at 6-weeks post-treatment, only the experimental group continued to exhibit further gains in UE-FM at 12-weeks follow-up (p<.05). This improvement was accompanied by a significant increase in arm-use during training in the experimental group. CONCLUSIONS: Implicitly reinforcing arm-use by augmenting visuomotor feedback as proposed by RIMT seems beneficial for inducing significant improvement in chronic stroke patients. By challenging the patients' self-limiting believe system and perceived low self-efficacy this approach might counteract learned non-use. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Trials NCT02657070 .

Spanish National Registry of Major Osteoporotic Fractures (REFRA) seen at Fracture Liaison Services (FLS): objectives and quality standards.

REFRA-FLS is a new registry in Spain aimed at identifying individuals over 50 years of age with a fragility fracture. Using this registry, we found hip fracture is the most prevalent fracture. Treatment for osteoporosis was 87.7%, with 65.3% adherence. REFRA-FLS provides fundamental data in the study of fragility fractures. PURPOSE: Fragility fractures are a growing public health concern in modern-aged societies. Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) have been shown to successfully lower rates of secondary fractures. A new registry (REFRA-FLS) has been created to monitor quality indicators of FLS units in Spain and to explore the occurrence and characteristic of fragility fractures identified by these centers. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study based on fragility fractures recorded in the REFRA-FLS registry. Participants were individuals 50 years or above who suffered a low energy fragility fracture identified by the 10 participating FLS units during the study period. The type of FLS unit, the characteristics of the individuals at baseline, along with patient outcomes as quality indicators among those who completed 1 year of follow-up were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 2965 patients and 3067 fragility fractures were identified, and the most frequent locations were hip (n = 1709, 55.7%) and spine (n = 492, 16.0%). A total of 43 refractures (4.5%) and 46 deaths (4.9%) were observed among 948 individuals in the follow-up analyses. Time from fracture to evaluation was less than 3 months in 76.7% of individuals. Osteoporosis treatment was prescribed in 87.7%, and adherence was 65.3% in Morisky-Green test. CONCLUSION: Our results provide a comprehensive picture of fragility fractures identified in FLS units from Spain. Overall, quality indicators are satisfactory although a much higher use of DXA would be desirable. As the registry grows with the incorporation of new FLS units and longer follow-up, incoming analyses will provide valuable insight.