Clinical Practice Guideline to Improve Locomotor Function Following Chronic Stroke, Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury, and Brain Injury.

Background: Individuals with acute-onset central nervous system (CNS) injury, including stroke, motor incomplete spinal cord injury, or traumatic brain injury, often experience lasting locomotor deficits, as quantified by decreases in gait speed and distance walked over a specific duration (timed distance). The goal of the present clinical practice guideline was to delineate the relative efficacy of various interventions to improve walking speed and timed distance in ambulatory individuals greater than 6 months following these specific diagnoses.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature published between 1995 and 2016 was performed in 4 databases for randomized controlled clinical trials focused on these specific patient populations, at least 6 months postinjury and with specific outcomes of walking speed and timed distance.

A 5-Week Seminar on the Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Model of Self-Care Improves Anxiety, Self-Compassion, Mindfulness, Depression, and Stress in Graduate Healthcare Students.

Graduate healthcare students can experience stress that affects their ability to perform academically and clinically, decreases empathy, and affects their well-being and clinical competence. The purpose of the current study was to determine the effects of a seminar on a yoga-inspired biopsychosocial-spiritual model of self-care on perceived levels of anxiety, self-compassion, mindfulness, depression, and stress in graduate healthcare students. We used a within-group repeated-measure design with baseline followed by intervention.

The heart rate response to nintendo wii boxing in young adults.

Purpose: To determine if 30 minutes of Nintendo Wii Sports boxing provides cardiorespiratory benefits and contributes to the daily exercise recommendations for healthy young adults.

Methods: Twenty healthy 23- to 27-year-olds participated in two sessions to measure maximum heart rate (HR(max)) via a treadmill test and heart rate (HR) response to 30 minutes of Wii Sports boxing. Heart rate in beats per minute (bpm) was measured continuously, and exercise intensity during each minute of play was stratified as a percentage of HR(max).

Whole-body intensive rehabilitation is feasible and effective in chronic stroke survivors: a retrospective data analysis.

Purpose: Upper extremity (UE) intensive repetitive training, locomotor training, and functional strength training, delivered in isolation, promote neural plasticity and functional recovery after stroke. However, the effectiveness of a comprehensive whole-body approach combining these interventions has not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this retrospective data analysis was to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of intensive, comprehensive rehabilitation for a heterogeneous population of chronic stroke survivors in a community clinic setting.

Activity-dependent plasticity in spinal cord injury.

The adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) is capable of considerable plasticity, both in health and disease. After spinal neurotrauma, the degrees and extent of neuroplasticity and recovery depend on multiple factors, including the level and extent of injury, postinjury medical and surgical care, and rehabilitative interventions. Rehabilitation strategies focus less on repairing lost connections and more on influencing CNS plasticity for regaining function.

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation induced forelimb movement in a rodent model.

Upper extremity neuromuscular electrical stimulation (FNS) has long been utilized as a neuroprosthesis to restore hand-grasp function in individuals with neurological disorders and injuries. More recently, electrical stimulation is being used as a rehabilitative therapy to tap into central nervous system plasticity. Here, we present initial development of a rodent model for neuromuscular stimulation induced forelimb movement that can be used as a platform to investigate stimulation-induced plasticity.

Degradation of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans potentiates transplant-mediated axonal remodeling and functional recovery after spinal cord injury in adult rats.

Transplantation of growth-permissive cells or tissues was used to bridge a lesion cavity and induce axonal growth in experimental spinal cord injury (SCI). Axonal interactions between host and transplant may be affected by upregulation of inhibitory chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) following various transplantation strategies. The extent of axonal growth and functional recovery after transplantation of embryonic spinal cord tissue decreases in adult compared to neonatal host.

Delayed intervention with transplants and neurotrophic factors supports recovery of forelimb function after cervical spinal cord injury in adult rats.

The adult central nervous system is capable of considerable anatomical reorganization and functional recovery after injury. Functional outcomes, however, vary greatly, depending upon size and location of injury, type and timing of intervention, and type of recovery and plasticity evaluated. The present study was undertaken to assess the recovery of skilled and unskilled forelimb function in adult rats after a C5/C6 spinal cord over-hemisection and delayed intervention with fetal spinal cord transplants and neurotrophins.

Transplants and neurotrophic factors increase regeneration and recovery of function after spinal cord injury.

Earlier studies suggested that while after spinal cord lesions and transplants at birth, the transplants serve both as a bridge and as a relay to restore supraspinal input caudal to the injury (Bregman, 1994), after injury in the adult the spinal cord transplants serve as a relay, but not as a bridge. We show here, that after complete spinal cord transection in adult rats, delayed spinal cord transplants and exogenous neurotrophic factors, the transplants can also serve as a bridge to restore supraspinal input (Fig. 9).