After a stroke, sustained gait impairment can restrict participation in the activities listed in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health model and cause poor quality of life. The present study investigated the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and visual feedback training (VF) training in improving lower limb motor performance, gait, and corticospinal excitability in patients with chronic stroke. Thirty patients were randomized into three groups that received either rTMS or sham stimulation over the contralesional leg region accompanied by VF training groups in addition to the conventional rehabilitation group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhether muscle properties gradually change with age and how muscle properties are affected by sex remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the influence of age and sex on the biomechanical and viscoelastic properties of arm muscles in middle-aged and older adults. In this cross-sectional study, 80 healthy participants were divided by sex (male and female), and each sex group, by 10-year age ranges (40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70-79 years).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To identify predictors of admission to post-acute inpatient rehabilitation settings follow-ing acute care for stroke survivors in Taiwan.
Design: Prospective observation study.
Participants: Stroke survivors (n = 558) admitted to acute care wards for inpatient rehabilitation (62% male; mean age 60.
Severe asymptomatic stenosis of the internal carotid artery (ICA) leads to increased incidence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) likely through silent embolic infarcts and/or chronic hypoperfusion, but the brain dysfunction is poorly understood and difficult to diagnose. Thirty cognitively intact subjects with asymptomatic, severe (≥ 70%), unilateral stenosis of the ICA were compared with 30 healthy controls, matched for age, sex, cardiovascular risk factors and education level, on a battery of neuropsychiatric tests, voxel-based morphometry of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging and brain-wise, seed-based analysis of resting-state functional MRI. Multivariate regression models and multivariate pattern classification (support vector machines) were computed to assess the relationship between connectivity measures and neurocognitive performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Severe asymptomatic carotid stenosis has been associated with cognitive impairment, but it is unknown whether this association is attributable to effects on brain connectivity. We present cognitive network abnormalities in a group of patients at a presymptomatic stage.
Methods: Seventeen patients with ≥ 70% asymptomatic stenosis of unilateral internal carotid artery were compared with 26 healthy controls utilizing a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, the dizziness handicap inventory, and multimodality neuroimaging including diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging.
Background: We demonstrated that prolonged transcranial magnetic intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS, 1200 pulses/session=iTBS1200) produces longer-lasting facilitation in corticospinal excitability than ordinary form of iTBS in healthy subjects.
Objective: Here we show the safety and small-scale efficacy of iTBS1200 over ipsilesional primary motor cortex (M1) in subacute stroke patients.
Methods: Twelve patients with first-time, subacute ischemic stroke of the middle cerebral artery were randomized into two groups that received 10 daily-sessions of either iTBS1200 or sham stimulation (n=6/group) over ipsilesional M1 hand region in addition to medical and rehabilitation treatments.