Volume 87, Issue 3 , Pages 351-357, March 2006
Influence of Electric Somatosensory Stimulation on Paretic-Hand Function in Chronic Stroke
Abstract
Wu CW, Seo H-J, Cohen LG. Influence of electric somatosensory stimulation on paretic-hand function in chronic stroke.
Objective
To test the influence of electric somatosensory stimulation on performance of the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test (JTHFT), a widely used assessment of functional hand motor skills, by the paretic arm in patients with chronic stroke.
Design
Initially, patients trained for several sessions until reaching plateau performance on the JTHFT. Subsequently, they entered a crossover randomized study, designed to evaluate the influence of somatosensory stimulation on JTHFT performance.
Setting
A research laboratory.
Participants
Nine patients with chronic stroke (≥1.5y) who acutely had marked weakness (paralysis of the upper extremity is evaluated as equal or below Medical Research Council [MRC] grade 2) followed by improvement to an MRC grade of 4.24±0.43 (range, 3.5–4.9) and Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) score of 86.43%±2.02% at the time of testing.
Interventions
Two hours of electric somatosensory stimulation was applied to the (1) paretic hand, (2) paretic leg, or (3) no stimulation in different sessions, in a randomized order.
Main Outcome Measure
The time required to complete the JTHFT was analyzed by using repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with factors time (pre-, postintervention) and intervention (paretic hand, paretic leg, no stimulation) followed by post hoc testing.
Results
Significant effects of intervention and intervention by time interaction (P<.01) on JTHFT time was revealed by repeated-measures ANOVA. Post hoc testing documented improvements in JTHFT time with paretic hand stimulation alone (P<.005), an effect that appeared more prominent in subjects with lower FMA scores.
Conclusions
Somatosensory stimulation applied to a paretic limb can benefit performance of a functional test in patients with chronic stroke. This result supports the proposal that electric sensory stimulation in combination with training protocols may enhance the benefit of customary neurorehabilitative treatments and possibly motor learning.
Key Words: Electric stimulation , Neuronal plasticity , Rehabilitation
Published as an abstract of the Fifth World Stroke Congress, June 2004, Vancouver, BC, Canada.No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the author(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.
PII: S0003-9993(05)01430-9
doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2005.11.019
© 2006 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Volume 87, Issue 3 , Pages 351-357, March 2006
