Background: Recovery of function following stroke plateaus in about 1 year, typically leaving upper arm function better than that in the hand. Since there is competition among body parts for territory in the sensorimotor cortex, even limited activity of the upper arm might prevent the hand from gaining more control, particularly when the territory is reduced in size because of the stroke. Deafferentation of a body part in a healthy brain enhances cortical representations of adjacent body parts, and this effect is markedly increased by voluntary activity of the adjacent part.
Objective: To explore whether deafferentation of the upper arm, produced by a new technique of regional anesthesia during hand motor practice, helps recovery of hand function in patients with long-term stable weakness of their hand following stroke.
Methods And Results: Deafferentation, produced by a new technique of regional anesthesia of the upper arm during hand motor practice, dramatically improved hand motor function including some activities of daily living. The improvement was associated with an increase in transcranial magnetic stimulation-evoked motor output to the practice hand muscles.
Conclusion: This is a novel therapeutic strategy that may help improve hand function in patients with long-term weakness after stroke.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archneur.59.8.1278 | DOI Listing |
J Health Popul Nutr
January 2025
Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester Medical Center, Saunders Research Building Crittenden Blvd, Rochester, New York, 14642, USA.
Background: No study has assessed the impact of flavor capsule cigarettes (FCCs) on smoking cessation. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study was to assess (1) the sociodemographic and smoking-related characteristics associated with using FCCs, and (2) the preliminary impact of FCCs on smoking cessation.
Methods: This study is a secondary data analysis of a single-arm study with 100 individuals living in Mexico who smoked and received a smoking cessation mHealth intervention and pharmacotherapy support.
Addict Sci Clin Pract
January 2025
Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Washington/Harborview Medical Center, 325 9Th Avenue, Box 359780, Seattle, WA, 98104, USA.
Background: Initiation of buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) in acute care settings improves access and outcomes, however patients who use methamphetamine are less likely to link to ongoing treatment. We describe the intervention and design from a pilot randomized controlled trial of an intervention to increase linkage to and retention in outpatient buprenorphine services for patients with OUD and methamphetamine use who initiate buprenorphine in the hospital.
Methods: The study is a two-arm pilot randomized controlled trial (N = 40) comparing the mHealth Incentivized Adherence Plus Patient Navigation (MIAPP) intervention to treatment as usual.
Trials
January 2025
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, NJ, USA.
Background: Phase-3 clinical trials provide the highest level of evidence on drug safety and effectiveness needed for market approval by implementing large randomized controlled trials (RCTs). However, 30-40% of these trials fail mainly because such studies have inadequate sample sizes, stemming from the inability to obtain accurate initial estimates of average treatment effect parameters.
Methods: To remove this obstacle from the drug development cycle, we present a new algorithm called Trend-Adaptive Design with a Synthetic-Intervention-Based Estimator (TAD-SIE) that powers a parallel-group trial, a standard RCT design, by leveraging a state-of-the-art hypothesis testing strategy and a novel trend-adaptive design (TAD).
Radiat Oncol
January 2025
ISTCT UMR 6030-CNRS, Université de Caen-Normandie, Caen, France.
Background: Radiotherapy as a complement or an alternative to neurosurgery has a central role in the treatment of skull base grade I-II meningiomas. Radiotherapy techniques have improved considerably over the last two decades, becoming more effective and sparing more and more the healthy tissue surrounding the tumour. Currently, hypo-fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) for small tumours and normo-fractionated intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) or proton-therapy (PT) for larger tumours are the most widely used techniques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neuroeng Rehabil
January 2025
Luzerner Kantonsspital, University, Teaching and Research Hospital, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland.
Background: Construct validity and responsiveness of upper limb outcome measures are essential to interpret motor recovery poststroke. Evaluating the associations between clinical upper limb measures and sensor-based arm use (AU) fosters a coherent understanding of motor recovery. Defining sensor-based AU metrics for intentional upper limb movements could be crucial in mitigating bias from walking-related activities.
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