Passive standing as an adjunct rehabilitation intervention after stroke: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Early physical rehabilitation enhances functional recovery in stroke survivors. Supported standing is a common adjunctive therapeutic practice in subjects with several central nervous diseases who are unable to stand actively. Data on the effect of supported positioning on standing frames in individuals with recent stroke are scarce and contradictory.

Urinary incontinence after ischemic stroke: clinical and urodynamic studies.

Aims: To investigate the frequency, the prognostic effect on functional status and the urodynamic patterns of post-stroke urinary incontinence (UI) in a sample of in-patients affected by ischemic stroke.

Methods: One hundred six patients with recent ischemic stroke admitted to a neurorehabilitation unit were enrolled. Stroke localization was made according to the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project (OCSP) stroke subtypes and assessment of stroke severity using the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS).

Prognostic value of motor evoked potentials in motor function recovery of upper limb after stroke.

Objective: To determine the prognostic value of clinical assessment and motor evoked potentials for upper limb strength and functional recovery after acute stroke, and to establish the possible use of motor evoked potentials in rehabilitation.

Design: A prospective study.

Subjects: Fifty-two patients with hemiparesis were enrolled one month post-stroke; 38 patients concluded the study at 12 months.

Gait in hemiplegia: evaluation of clinical features with the Wisconsin Gait Scale.

Objective: To assess the ability of the Wisconsin Gait Scale to evaluate qualitative features of changes in hemiplegic gait in post-stroke patients.

Design: A prospective observational study.

Subjects: Ten healthy subjects and 56 hemiplegic outpatients, more than 12 months post-stroke, consecutively admitted in a rehabilitation centre.

Application of a volar static splint in poststroke spasticity of the upper limb.

Objective: To evaluate clinical and neurophysiologic effects of 3-month reflex inhibitory splinting (RIS) for poststroke upper-limb spasticity.

Design: Pretest-posttest trial.

Setting: Outpatient rehabilitation center.

Evaluation of upper-limb spasticity after stroke: A clinical and neurophysiologic study.

Objectives: To assess upper-limb spasticity after stroke by means of clinical and instrumental tools and to identify possible variables influencing the clinical pattern.

Design: Descriptive measurement study of a consecutive sample of patients with upper-limb spasticity after stroke.

Setting: Neurorehabilitation hospital.

Chest wall kinematics in patients with hemiplegia.

Owing to difficulties in measuring ventilation symmetry, good evidence of different right/left respiratory movements has not yet been provided. We investigated VT differences between paretic and healthy sides during quiet breathing, voluntary hyperventilation, and hypercapnic stimulation in patients with hemiparesis. We studied eight patients with hemiparesis and nine normal sex- and age-matched subjects.

Dissociation between respiratory effort and dyspnoea in a subset of patients with stroke.

Dyspnoea is not a prominent complaint of resting patients with recent hemispheric stroke (RHS). We hypothesized that, in patients with RHS presenting abnormalities in respiratory mechanics, increased respiratory motor output could translate into an increased perception of dyspnoea. We studied eight wheelchair-bound patients with RHS (mean age 62.

Familial amyloid polyneuropathy with genetic anticipation associated to a gly47glu transthyretin variant in an Italian kindred.

The most frequent localization of amyloid in transthyretin (TTR) mutations is in the peripheral nerve, causing familial amyloidpolyneuropathy (FAP). It is generally accompanied by involvement of other organs such as the myocardium and kidney. To date, over 70 TTR point mutations have been reported in literature, with different phenotypes depending on the location of the mutation in the TTR gene.