Deans' stroke musings: Editorial: Electromyography (EMG) Techniques for the Assessment and Rehabilitation of Motor Impairment Following Stroke

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.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Editorial: Electromyography (EMG) Techniques for the Assessment and Rehabilitation of Motor Impairment Following Stroke

Your doctor has 19 papers to analyze and create stroke rehab protocols for. Don't let her/him weasel out of that responsibility. If we had a great stroke association they could do that and distribute those protocols worldwide. But we have shit for stroke associations doing nothing for survivors. So 10 million yearly stroke survivors have to analyze stroke research themselves and come up with solutions. That is the height of stupidity.

Editorial: Electromyography (EMG) Techniques for the Assessment and Rehabilitation of Motor Impairment Following Stroke

Cliff S. Klein¹^*,

Sheng Li²^*,

Xiaogang Hu³^* and

Xiaoyan Li²^*

¹Guangdong Work Injury Rehabilitation Center, Guangzhou, China
²University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and TIRR Memorial Hermann Research Center, Houston, TX, United States
³Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States

Editorial on the Research Topic
Electromyography (EMG) Techniques for the Assessment and Rehabilitation of Motor Impairment Following Stroke

The nineteen papers of the research topic Electromyography (EMG) Techniques for the Assessment and Rehabilitation of Motor Impairment Following Stroke highlight a variety of ways that EMG may be used to better understand and treat stroke-induced brain damage. Seven papers addressed the impact of weekly training on EMG properties and function post-stroke, and one paper examined the effect of a robotic exoskeleton on gait during a single training session (Exercise/therapy interventions). Six of the seven training studies were concerned with upper limb function (one of which also assessed corticomuscular coupling), and one examined the effect of foot drop stimulator training. The six upper limb studies used a variety of training modalities including Wii-based upper limb therapy (two papers from one group), EMG-driven robotic devices with or without neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) (three papers), and traditional physical/occupational therapy (one paper).

Another seven papers were focused on using EMG to examine motor impairment after stroke (Mechanisms of motor impairment). These included one study that addressed coupling between the index finger and thumb, whereas another addressed upper limb synergies during reaching. One paper examined EMG co-contraction during gait, and one addressed gait EMG during obstacle crossing. One group examined reticulospinal pathways during elbow flexor activity using startling acoustic stimulation. Another studied masticatory muscle activity following brainstem stroke. Finally, one group addressed coupling between the electroencephalogram (EEG) and EMG signals during upper limb movements.

Four studies used novel EMG processing techniques to study motor control and impairment post-stroke (Novel EMG processing techniques). These included new approaches to intramuscular EMG decomposition, coherence of motor unit firing patterns from surface EMG, clustering index analysis of surface EMG, and pattern recognition from high density surface EMG.

Exercise/therapy Interventions

A number of studies examined the effects of an exercise/therapy program, or a single exercise session, on EMG and motor function. Some also addressed the associated cortical plasticity.