Abstract
Objective
To investigate the effects of perturbation-based pinch task training on the sensorimotor
performance of the upper extremities of patients with chronic stroke via a novel vibrotactile
therapy system.
Design
A single-blinded randomized controlled trial.
Setting
A university hospital.
Participants
Patients with chronic stroke (N=19) randomly assigned into either an experimental
group or a control group completed the study.
Interventions
In addition to 10 minutes of traditional sensorimotor facilitation, each participant
in the experimental group received 20 minutes of perturbation-based pinch task training
in each treatment session, and the controls received 20 minutes of task-specific motor
training twice a week for 6 weeks.
Main Outcome Measures
The scores for the primary outcome, Semmes-Weinstein monofilament (SWM), and those
for the secondary outcomes, Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), amount of use, quality of
movement (QOM) on the Motor Activity Log (MAL) scale, and box and block test (BBT),
were recorded. All outcome measures were recorded at pretreatment, post treatment,
and 12-week follow-up.
Results
There were statistically significant between-group differences in the training-induced
improvements revealed in the SWM results (P=.04) immediately after training and in the BBT results (P=.05) at the 12-week follow-up. The changes in muscle tone and in the QOM, SWM, and
BBT scores indicated statistically significant improvements after 12 sessions of treatment
for the experimental group. For the control group, a significant statistical improvement
was found in the wrist (P<.001) and coordination (P=.01) component of the FMA score.
Conclusions
This study indicated that the perturbation-based pinch task training has beneficial
effects on sensory restoration of the affected thumb in patients with chronic stroke.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
BBT (box and block test), FMA (Fugl-Meyer Assessment), MAL (Motor Activity Log), MAS (Modified Ashworth Scale), QOM (quality of movement), SWM (Semmes-Weinstein monofilament), VTS (vibrotactile therapy system)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 02, 2020
Footnotes
Supported by the Medical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng Kung University, from the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan. This work was also supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (grant no. MoST 104-2314-B-384-008-MY2).
Clinical Trial Registration No.: NCT03798340.
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
