Deans' stroke musings: fMRI as a molecular imaging procedure for the functional reorganization of motor systems 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.

Friday, May 24, 2024

fMRI as a molecular imaging procedure for the functional reorganization of motor systems in chronic stroke

All this proves is that the extra exercise gets you some recovery, the fMRI did nothing for recovery. With NO factual measurement of recovery, I don't see anything useful here.

fMRI as a molecular imaging procedure for the functional reorganization of motor systems in chronic stroke

ASIMINA LAZARIDOU 1,2 , LOUKAS ASTRAKAS 1,2 , DIONYSSIOS MINTZOPOULOS 1,2 , AZADEH KHANCHICEH 3 , ANEESH SINGHAL 4 , MICHAEL MOSKOWITZ 2 , BRUCE ROSEN 2 and ARIA TZIKA 1,2 1 NMR Surgical Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Burn Institute, Harvard Medical School; 2 Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging; 3 Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern University; 4 Department of Neurology, Stroke Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Received February 24, 2013; Accepted March 20, 2013 DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2013.1603

Abstract.

Previous brain imaging studies suggest that stroke alters functional connectivity in motor execution networks. Moreover, current understanding of brain plasticity has led to new approaches in stroke rehabilitation. Recent studies showed a significant role of effective coupling of neuronal activity in the SMA (supplementary motor area) and M1 (primary motor cortex) network for motor outcome in patients after stroke. After a subcortical stroke, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during movement reveals cortical reorganization that is associated with the recovery of function. The aim of the present study was to explore connectivity alterations within the motor-related areas combining motor fMRI with a novel MR-compatible hand-induced robotic device (MR_CHIROD) training. Patients completed training at home and underwent serial MR evaluation at baseline and after 8 weeks of training. Training at home consisted of squeezing a gel exercise ball with the paretic hand at ~75% of maximum strength for 1 h/day, 3 days/week. The fMRI analysis revealed alterations in M1,(But did this produce recovery?) SMA, PMC (premotor cortex) and Cer (cerebellum) in both stroke patients and healthy controls after the training. Findings of the present study suggest that enhancement of SMA activity could benefit M1 dysfunction in stroke survivors. These results also indicate that connectivity alterations between motor areas might assist the counterbalance of a functionally abnormal M1 in chronic stroke survivors and possibly other patients with motor dysfunction.