Deans' stroke musings: Thermal Grill Illusion in Post-Stroke Patients: Analysis of Clinical Features and Lesion Areas

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, November 22, 2023

Thermal Grill Illusion in Post-Stroke Patients: Analysis of Clinical Features and Lesion Areas

No clue.

Thermal Grill Illusion in Post-Stroke Patients: Analysis of Clinical Features and Lesion Areas

Authors Matsuda S , Igawa Y, Uchisawa H, Iki S, Osumi M

Received 3 August 2023

Accepted for publication 8 November 2023

Published 14 November 2023 Volume 2023:16 Pages 3895—3904

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S433309

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Soichiro Matsuda,¹ Yuki Igawa,^1,² Hidekazu Uchisawa,^1,² Shinya Iki,³ Michihiro Osumi^1,⁴

¹Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kio University, Nara, Japan; ²Department of Rehabilitation, Nishiyamato Rehabilitation Hospital, Nara, Japan; ³Department of Rehabilitation, Kawaguchi Neurosurgery Rehabilitation Clinic, Osaka, Japan; ⁴Neurorehabilitation Research Center, Kio University, Nara, Japan

Correspondence: Soichiro Matsuda, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kio University, 4-2-2 Umaminaka, Kitakatsuragigun, Nara, 635-0832, Japan, Tel +745-54-1601, Fax +745-54-1600, Email f1996957@kio.ac.jp

Purpose: In the thermal grill illusion, participants experience a feeling similar to burning pain. The illusion is induced by simultaneously touching warm and cool stimuli in alternating positions. In post-stroke pain, central sensitization is caused by a variety of factors, including damage to the spinothalamic tract and shoulder pain. Because the thermal grill illusion depends on central mechanisms, it has recently been suggested that it may be a useful indicator of central sensitization. Therefore, we hypothesized that post-stroke patients who are more likely to experience central sensitization may also be more likely to experience a thermal grill sensation of pain and discomfort than the likelihood among those who are less likely to experience central sensitization. However, the effects of the thermal grill illusion in post-stroke patients have not yet been reported. In this pilot study, we conducted the thermal grill illusion procedure in post-stroke patients and analyzed the relationship between clinical somatosensory functions and thermal grill sensations. We also conducted brain imaging analysis to identify brain lesion areas that were associated with thermal grill sensations.
Patients and Methods: Twenty patients (65.7 ± 11.9 years old) with post-stroke patients participated in this study. The thermal grill illusion procedure was performed as follows: patients simultaneously touched eight water-filled copper bars, with the water temperature adjusted to provide alternate warm (40°C) and cold (20°C) stimuli.
Results: Thermal grill sensation of pain and discomfort tended to be associated with the wind-up phenomenon in bedside quantitative sensory testing and thermal grill sensation of discomfort was also related to damage to the thalamic lateral nucleus.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that the thermal grill illusion might measure central sensitization, and that secondary brain hyperactivity might lead to increased thermal grill sensations.