Introduction
Rehabilitation plays a central role in stroke recovery.
Besides conventional therapy, technological treatments have become
available. About technological rehabilitation, its effectiveness and
appropriateness are not yet well defined, hence researches focused on
different variables impacting the recovery are needed. Results from
literature identified the Cognitive Reserve (CR) as a variable impacting
on the cognitive outcome. In this paper we aim to evaluate whether the
CR influences the motor outcome in patients after stroke treated with
conventional or robotic therapy and if it may address towards one
treatment rather than another.
Methods/Patients
Seventy‐five stroke patients were enrolled in five
Italian neurological rehabilitation centres. Patients were assigned
either to a Robotic Group, rehabilitation by means of robotic devices,
or to a Conventional Group, where a traditional approach was used.
Patients were evaluated at baseline and after rehabilitation treatment
of 6 weeks through Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), Motricity Index (MI)
and Barthel Index (BI). CR was assessed at baseline using the Cognitive
Reserve Index (CRI) questionnaire.
(Test yourself here:)
Results
Considering all patients, a weak correlation was found
between the CRI related to leisure time and MI evolution (r:0.276;
p=0.02). Among the patients who performed a robotic rehabilitation a
moderate correlation emerged between the CRI related to working
activities and the MI evolution (r:0.422; p=0.02).
Conclusions
Our results suggest that CR may influence the motor
outcome. For each patient, the CR and its subcategories should be
considered in the choice between conventional and robotic treatment.
No comments:
Post a Comment