Deans' stroke musings: Effects on decreasing upper-limb poststroke muscle tone using transcranial direct current stimulation: A randomized sham-controlled study

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Effects on decreasing upper-limb poststroke muscle tone using transcranial direct current stimulation: A randomized sham-controlled study

I hate my bicep and lat spasticity.
http://search.naric.com/research/rehab/redesign_record.cfm?search=2&type=all&criteria=J65451&phrase=no&rec=120760
NARIC Accession Number: J65451. What's this?
ISSN: 0003-9993.
Author(s): Wu, Dongyu; Qian, Long; Zorowitz, Richard D.; Zhang, Lei; Qu, Yaping; Yuan, Ying.
Publication Year: 2013.
Number of Pages: 8.
Abstract: Study assessed the efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on decreasing upper-limb (UL) muscle tone after stroke. Ninety inpatients with poststroke UL spasticity were randomized into the tDCS group or the control group. The tDCS group received tDCS to the primary sensorimotor cortex of the affected side with cathodal stimulation, 20 minutes per day, 5 days per week, for 4 weeks and conventional physical therapy. The control group received sham stimulation (same area as the tDCS group) and conventional physical therapy. Outcome measures included the Modified Ashworth scale (MAS), Fugl-Meyer Assessment of motor recovery, and Barthel Index. All outcomes were measured at admission, at the end of the 4-week treatment, and at a 4-week follow-up. A clinically important difference (CID) was defined as a reduction of 1 or more in the MAS score. Compared with the sham tDCS group, UL muscle tone was significantly decreased and UL motor function and activities of daily living (ADL) assessment significantly improved in the active tDCS group after treatment and at follow-up. For the active tDCS group, MAS scores of elbow and wrist significantly decreased after tDCS and kept decreasing at follow-up. For the sham tDCS group, MAS scores almost kept unchanged after tDCS and increased significantly at follow-up. UL muscle tone after stroke can be decreased using cathodal tDCS. Combined with conventional physical therapy, tDCS appears to improve motor function and ADL. Cathodal tDCS over ipsilesional primary sensorimotor cortex may inhibit primary sensorimotor cortex hyperactivation, resulting in significant reductions in muscle tone.
Descriptor Terms: BRAIN, ELECTRICAL STIMULATION, LIMBS, MUSCLES, PHYSICAL THERAPY, SPASTICITY, STROKE.

Can this document be ordered through NARIC's document delivery service?: Y.