Deans' stroke musings: Seated Bilateral Leg Exercise Effects on Hemiparetic Lower Extremity Function in Chronic 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.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Seated Bilateral Leg Exercise Effects on Hemiparetic Lower Extremity Function in Chronic Stroke

You can ask your doctor for the protocol. It is for chronic so everyone could benefit. If we had a great stroke association with a database of all research and protocols we wouldn't have to rely on every doctor being precisely competent on everything in stroke.

Seated Bilateral Leg Exercise Effects on Hemiparetic Lower Extremity Function in Chronic Stroke

Leif Johannsen, PhD,
1
Alan Miles Wing, PhD,
1
Trudy Pelton, MRes,
1
Kizito Kitaka, BSc,
1
Doerte Zietz, MRes,
1
Nicola Brittle, BSc,
1
Paulette van Vliet, PhD,
2
Jane Riddoch, PhD,
1
Cath Sackley, PhD,
1
and Richard McManus, PhD, MBBS, FRCGP
1

Abstract

Background
. Bilateral arm training with rhythmic auditory cueing (BATRAC) improves hemiparetic upper extremity (UE) function in stroke. It is unknown whether a similar exercise for the hemiparetic lower extremity (LE) is effective.
Objective
. The authors sought to test whether the BATRAC strategy would transfer to the legs by improving LE motor function following ten 30-minute sessions of bilateral leg training with rhythmic auditory cueing (BLETRAC).
Methods
. Twenty-four chronic stroke participants, recruited from the community, were randomized to either the BLETRAC or the BATRAC intervention. Assessments were performed before (week 0) and after (week 6) training as well as 3 months later (week 18). Change in the Fugl-Meyer LE and UE subscales served as primary outcomes. Timed 10-m walk, movement parameters during treadmill walking, and a repetitive aiming task for both feet and hands were the secondary outcomes.
Results
. Following an intention-to-treat approach, data from 21 subjects were analyzed. After training, improvements in the Fugl-Meyer LE and UE subscales tended to be better for the corresponding intervention group. The BLETRAC group also showed increases in step length during treadmill walking and performance in the repetitive foot and hand aiming tasks. No differences between the intervention groups were found at follow-up.
Conclusions
. This exploratory trial demonstrates that transfer of the BATRAC approach to the legs is feasible. Transient improvements of limb motor function in chronic stroke participants were induced by targeted exercise (BATRAC for the UE and BLETRAC for the LE). It may be that further periods of training would increase and maintain effects.