This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Rabadi, M. Articles by Volpe, B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Rabadi, M. Articles by Volpe, B. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

A pilot study of activity-based therapy in the arm motor recovery post stroke: a randomized controlled trial

Veterans Affairs Medical Center, mhrabadi{at}gmail.com

M. Galgano

Burke Medical Research Institute

D. Lynch

Burke Medical Research Institute

M Akerman

Biostatistics Unit at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System

M. Lesser

Biostatistics Unit at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System

BT Volpe

Stroke Service, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital; Burke Medical Research Institute

Objective: To determine the efficacy of activity-based therapies using arm ergometer or robotic or group occupational therapy for motor recovery of the paretic arm in patients with an acute stroke (4 weeks) admitted to an inpatient rehabilitation facility, and to obtain information to plan a large randomized controlled trial.

Design: Prospective, randomized controlled study.

Setting: Stroke unit in a rehabilitation hospital.

Subjects: Thirty patients with an acute stroke (4 weeks) who had arm weakness (Medical Research Council grade 2 or less at the shoulder joint).

Intervention: Occupational therapy (OT) group (control) (n = 10), arm ergometer (n = 10) or robotic (n = 10) therapy group. All patients received standard, inpatient, post-stroke rehabilitation training for 3 hours a day, plus 12 additional 40-minute sessions of the activity-based therapy.

Main measures: The primary outcome measures were discharge scores in the Fugl-Meyer Assessment Scale for upper limb impairment, Motor Status Scale, total Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and FIM-motor and FIM-cognition subscores.

Results: The three groups (OT group versus arm ergometer versus robotic) were comparable on clinical demographic measures except the robotic group was significantly older and there were more haemorrhagic stroke patients in the arm ergometer group. After adjusting for age, stroke type and outcome measures at baseline, a similar degree of improvement in the discharge scores was found in all of the primary outcome measures.

Conclusion: This study suggests that activity-based therapies using an arm ergometer or robot when used over shortened training periods have the same effect as OT group therapy in decreasing impairment and improving disability in the paretic arm of severely affected stroke patients in the subacute phase.

Clinical Rehabilitation, Vol. 22, No. 12, 1071-1082 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0269215508095358


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?