BACKGROUND: Stroke is one of the main causes of impairment affecting daily activities and quality of life. There is a growing effort to potentiate the recovery of functional gait and to enable stroke patients to walk independently. AIM: To estimate the effects of dual-site transcranial direct current stimulation (dstDCS) on gait recovery in chronic stroke patients provided with robot-aided gait training (RAGT). METHODS: Thirty-seven patients were included in this retrospective clinical study. Nine patients were provided with dstDCS during the first 10 min of RAGT by using Lokomat®Pro (on-RAGT), 15 patients immediately after RAGT (post-RAGT), and 13 patients immediately before RAGT (pre-RAGT). RESULTS: Each group improved over time concerning disability burden and lower limb strength. on-RAGT and post-RAGT experienced better improvement in balance (p < 0.001) and, moderately, gait endurance (p = 0.04) as compared to pre-RAGT. Furthermore, all treatments decreased the facilitation of the unaffected hemisphere (p < 0.001) and the inhibition of the affected hemisphere (p < 0.001). The duration of such aftereffects was found to be greater for post-RAGT. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This is the first trial with dstDCS coupled with RAGT in chronic stroke patients with gait impairment. When timely coupled with RAGT, dstDCS may be considered an effective tool for the recovery of lower limb function in patients with first unilateral stroke in the chronic phase. Moreover, our data suggest the ductility of dstDCS concerning RAGT timing, thus making this intervention suitable in a neurorehabilitation setting and well adaptable to patients' needs.
BACKGROUND: Stroke is one of the main causes of impairment affecting daily activities and quality of life. There is a growing effort to potentiate the recovery of functional gait and to enable stroke patients to walk independently. AIM: To estimate the effects of dual-site transcranial direct current stimulation (dstDCS) on gait recovery in chronic stroke patients provided with robot-aided gait training (RAGT). METHODS: Thirty-seven patients were included in this retrospective clinical study. Nine patients were provided with dstDCS during the first 10 min of RAGT by using Lokomat®Pro (on-RAGT), 15 patients immediately after RAGT (post-RAGT), and 13 patients immediately before RAGT (pre-RAGT). RESULTS: Each group improved over time concerning disability burden and lower limb strength. on-RAGT and post-RAGT experienced better improvement in balance (p < 0.001) and, moderately, gait endurance (p = 0.04) as compared to pre-RAGT. Furthermore, all treatments decreased the facilitation of the unaffected hemisphere (p < 0.001) and the inhibition of the affected hemisphere (p < 0.001). The duration of such aftereffects was found to be greater for post-RAGT. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This is the first trial with dstDCS coupled with RAGT in chronic stroke patients with gait impairment. When timely coupled with RAGT, dstDCS may be considered an effective tool for the recovery of lower limb function in patients with first unilateral stroke in the chronic phase. Moreover, our data suggest the ductility of dstDCS concerning RAGT timing, thus making this intervention suitable in a neurorehabilitation setting and well adaptable to patients' needs.
Entities:
Keywords:
Chronic stroke; Dual-site transcranial direct current stimulation; Gait recovery; Robot-aided gait training
Authors: Jean-Pascal Lefaucheur; Andrea Antal; Samar S Ayache; David H Benninger; Jérôme Brunelin; Filippo Cogiamanian; Maria Cotelli; Dirk De Ridder; Roberta Ferrucci; Berthold Langguth; Paola Marangolo; Veit Mylius; Michael A Nitsche; Frank Padberg; Ulrich Palm; Emmanuel Poulet; Alberto Priori; Simone Rossi; Martin Schecklmann; Sven Vanneste; Ulf Ziemann; Luis Garcia-Larrea; Walter Paulus Journal: Clin Neurophysiol Date: 2016-10-29 Impact factor: 3.708
Authors: Paulo S Boggio; Roberta Ferrucci; Sergio P Rigonatti; Priscila Covre; Michael Nitsche; Alvaro Pascual-Leone; Felipe Fregni Journal: J Neurol Sci Date: 2006-07-14 Impact factor: 3.181
Authors: Jan Mehrholz; Simone Thomas; Cordula Werner; Joachim Kugler; Marcus Pohl; Bernhard Elsner Journal: Cochrane Database Syst Rev Date: 2017-05-10