Remedial Training of the Less-Impaired Arm in Chronic Stroke Survivors With Moderate to Severe Upper-Extremity Paresis Improves Functional Independence: A Pilot Study

The upper-extremity portion of the Fugl-Meyer Scale (UE-FM) is one of the most established and commonly used outcome measures in stroke rehabilitative trials. Empirical work is needed to determine the amount of change in UE-FM scores that can be regarded as important and clinically meaningful for health professionals, patients, and other stakeholders. This study used anchor-based methods to estimate the clinically important difference (CID) for the UE-FM in people with minimal to moderate impairment due to chronic stroke. One hundred forty-six individuals with stable, mild to moderate upper-extremity (UE) hemiparesis were administered the UE-FM before and after an intervention targeting their affected UEs. The treating therapists rated each participant's perceived amount of UE motor recovery on a global rating of change (GROC) scale evaluating several facets of UE movement (grasp, release, move the affected UE, perform 5 important functional tasks with the affected UE, overall UE function). Estimated CID of the UE-FM scores was calculated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve with the GROC scores as the anchor. The ROC curve analysis revealed that change in UE-FM scores during the intervention period distinguished participants who experienced clinically important improvement from those that did not based on the therapists' GROC scores. The area under the curve ranged from 0.61 to 0.70 for the different facets of UE movement. The estimated CID of the UE-FM scores ranged from 4.25 to 7.25 points, depending on the different facets of UE movement.

Stroke is one of the leading causes for disability worldwide. Motor function deficits due to stroke affect the patients' mobility, their limitation in daily life activities, their participation in society and their odds of returning to professional activities. All of these factors contribute to a low overall quality of life. Rehabilitation training is the most effective way to reduce motor impairments in stroke patients. This multiple systematic review focuses both on standard treatment methods and on innovating rehabilitation techniques used to promote upper extremity motor function in stroke patients. A total number of 5712 publications on stroke rehabilitation was systematically reviewed for relevance and quality with regards to upper extremity motor outcome. This procedure yielded 270 publications corresponding to the inclusion criteria of the systematic review. Recent technology-based interventions in stroke rehabilitation including non-invasive brain stimulation, robot-assisted training, and virtual reality immersion are addressed. Finally, a decisional tree based on evidence from the literature and characteristics of stroke patients is proposed. At present, the stroke rehabilitation field faces the challenge to tailor evidence-based treatment strategies to the needs of the individual stroke patient. Interventions can be combined in order to achieve the maximal motor function recovery for each patient. Though the efficacy of some interventions may be under debate, motor skill learning, and some new technological approaches give promising outcome prognosis in stroke motor rehabilitation.

Single-site studies suggest that a 2-week program of constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) for patients more than 1 year after stroke who maintain some hand and wrist movement can improve upper extremity function that persists for at least 1 year. To compare the effects of a 2-week multisite program of CIMT vs usual and customary care on improvement in upper extremity function among patients who had a first stroke within the previous 3 to 9 months. The Extremity Constraint Induced Therapy Evaluation (EXCITE) trial, a prospective, single-blind, randomized, multisite clinical trial conducted at 7 US academic institutions between January 2001 and January 2003. Two hundred twenty-two individuals with predominantly ischemic stroke. Participants were assigned to receive either CIMT (n = 106; wearing a restraining mitt on the less-affected hand while engaging in repetitive task practice and behavioral shaping with the hemiplegic hand) or usual and customary care (n = 116; ranging from no treatment after concluding formal rehabilitation to pharmacologic or physiotherapeutic interventions); patients were stratified by sex, prestroke dominant side, side of stroke, and level of paretic arm function. The Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), a measure of laboratory time and strength-based ability and quality of movement (functional ability), and the Motor Activity Log (MAL), a measure of how well and how often 30 common daily activities are performed. From baseline to 12 months, the CIMT group showed greater improvements than the control group in both the WMFT Performance Time (decrease in mean time from 19.3 seconds to 9.3 seconds [52% reduction] vs from 24.0 seconds to 17.7 seconds [26% reduction]; between-group difference, 34% [95% confidence interval {CI}, 12%-51%]; P<.001) and in the MAL Amount of Use (on a 0-5 scale, increase from 1.21 to 2.13 vs from 1.15 to 1.65; between-group difference, 0.43 [95% CI, 0.05-0.80]; P<.001) and MAL Quality of Movement (on a 0-5 scale, increase from 1.26 to 2.23 vs 1.18 to 1.66; between-group difference, 0.48 [95% CI, 0.13-0.84]; P<.001). The CIMT group achieved a decrease of 19.5 in self-perceived hand function difficulty (Stroke Impact Scale hand domain) vs a decrease of 10.1 for the control group (between-group difference, 9.42 [95% CI, 0.27-18.57]; P=.05). Among patients who had a stroke within the previous 3 to 9 months, CIMT produced statistically significant and clinically relevant improvements in arm motor function that persisted for at least 1 year. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00057018.