Sunday, November 15, 2020

Contralesional Motor Cortex Activation Depends on Ipsilesional Corticospinal Tract Integrity in Well-Recovered Subcortical Stroke Patients

 The takeaway from this is that YOU need to have the correct stroke and resulting integrity. The stroke medical world seems to be ignoring the real world of stroke. Good luck planning your stroke to fit the research and interventions that exist currently. YOUR RESPONSIBILITY! This makes it much easier for your doctor to blame you for not recovering, rather than looking at what they should be doing to get you 100% recovered.

Contralesional Motor Cortex Activation Depends on Ipsilesional Corticospinal Tract Integrity in Well-Recovered Subcortical Stroke Patients

2012, Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair
 Martin Lotze, MD 1, 
Willy Beutling 1, 
Moritz Loibl 1, 
Martin Domin 1, 
Thomas Platz, MD 2, 
Ulf Schminke, MD 1, 
and Winston D. Byblow, PhD 3

Abstract

Background.
 The relationship between structural and functional integrity of descending motor pathways can predict the potential for motor recovery after stroke. The authors examine the relationship between brain imaging biomarkers within contralesional and ipsilesional hemispheres and hand function in well-recovered patients after subcortical stroke at the level of the internal capsule.
Objective.
 Measures of functional activation and integrity of the ipsilesional corticospinal tract might predict paretic hand function.
 Methods.
 A total of 14 patients in the chronic stable phase of motor recovery after subcortical stroke and 24 healthy age-matched individuals participated in the study. Functional MRI was used to examine BOLD contrast during passive wrist flexion–extension and paced or maximum-velocity active fist clenching. Functional integrity of the corticospinal pathway was assessed by transcranial magnetic stimulation to obtain motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in the first dorsal interosseus muscle of the paretic and nonparetic hands. Fractional anisotropy and the proportion of traces between hemispheres in the posterior limb of both internal capsules were quantified using diffusion-weighted MRI.
Results.
 Patients with smaller MEPs had a weaker paretic hand and more primary motor cortex activation in their affected hemisphere.  Asymmetry between white matter tracts of either hemisphere was associated with reduced precision grip strength and increased BOLD activation within the contralesional dorsal premotor cortex for demanding hand tasks.
Conclusion.
 There may be beneficial reorganization in contralesional secondary motor areas with increasing damage to the corticospinal tract after subcortical stroke. Associations between clinical, functional, and structural integrity measures in chronic stroke may lead to a better understanding of motor recovery processes.
 

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