
Secondary Prevention of Stroke Through Non-drug Therapeutic Weight Reduction
StrokeObesitySCENARIO is a trial to investigate the role of non-drug weight reduction in secondary prevention of stroke. It is a single-blinded, randomized, controlled multicentre trial with two arms. The therapy arm is participating in a comprehensive weight reducing program, whereas the control group takes part in a lecture on healthy nutrition. The primary study objective is to assess the efficacy of non-drug therapeutic weight reduction in the secondary prevention of stroke. Secondary objectives are functional outcome, cognitive status, post stroke depression, and health-related quality of life.

Auditory Masking Effects on Speech Fluency in Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech
Apraxia of SpeechAphasia1 moreImpaired speech production is a major obstacle to full participation in life roles by stroke survivors with aphasia and apraxia of speech. The proposed study will demonstrate the short-term effects of auditory masking on speech disfluencies and identify individual factors that predict a positive response, enabling future work to develop auditory masking as a treatment adjuvant targeting long-term improvement in speech. Providing an additional treatment option for adults with aphasia and apraxia of speech will have the clear benefit of improving quality of life and allowing individuals to participate more actively in their health care decisions through improved communication.

Feedback and Rewards to Increase Motivation for Therapy in Stroke Rehabilitation
StrokeHigh motivation is a predictor for good therapy results in physical therapy [Grahn 2000]. The investigator want to show that it is possible to increase patients motivation for stroke rehabilitation by providing them objective performance feedback about the patients therapy progress.

Know Your Pulse Post Stroke-Measurement of Peripheral Pulse for Detection of Atrial Fibrillation...
StrokeAtrial FibrillationAtrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cause of cardioembolism and a leading cause of ischemic stroke. The diagnosis of AF after cerebral ischemia is difficult to establish even during the treatment at specialised stroke units, as paroxysmal episodes may terminate spontaneously before arrival at the hospital and do not always show early recurrence. However, the diagnosis of AF is of particular clinical relevance since adaequate anticoagulation is one of the most effective secondary preventive treatments in stroke. The detection rate of AF after stroke increases progressively by extending the duration and intensity of cardiac monitoring. For this purpose innovative medical devices and implantable event recorders have been suggested. However, high socioeconomic expenses, malcompliance and the invasiveness of some of these approaches currently limit their use to a minority of affected patients, while the growing number of stroke survivors is lacking access to free and simple screening tools. For primary prevention, the measurement of the peripheral pulse (MPP) is currently the only guideline-recommended screening method among individuals aged 65 years or older. In contrast, MPP has never been applied in the setting of secondary stroke prevention, probably because several factors were expected to interfere with this simple technique, including sensomotor and neuropsychiologic handicaps of stroke patients 18. This study investigates feasibility and validity of MPP in this cohort (pilot phase) and compares daily MPP for 6 months with repeated holter-ECG in patients after ischemic stroke.

Prolidase Enzyme Activity in Stroke Patients
StrokeIschemic1 moreStroke is a major cerebrovascular disease that causes significant burdens for human health and life, including high morbidity, mortality, and disability. Prolidase enzyme activity was found in various organs, such as the heart, brain, thymus, kidney, lung, pancreas, and spleen, and in plasma, leukocytes, erythrocytes, and dermal fibroblasts. An increase in collagen turnover is known to be correlated with increased prolidase enzyme activity. The aim of this study was to investigate whether SPA levels in AIS patients can be used as a potential diagnostic and prognostic marker. SPA levels were prospectively evaluated in 37 patients aged between 20 and 85 years who were admitted within 24 hours of the onset of AIS. The control group included 37 healthy volunteers of similar age without any disease.

Telestroke for Comprehensive Transient Ischemic Attack Care in Acute Stroke Ready Hospitals
Transient Ischemic AttackTELECAST-TIA is a prospective single-center study evaluating guideline-based transient ischemic attack (TIA) treatment at an Acute Stroke Ready Hospital (ASRH) pre- and post-initiation of a specialist telestroke inpatient rounding service. TELECAST-TIA will study the following clinical endpoints: diagnostic stroke evaluation, secondary stroke prevention, health screening and evaluation, stroke education, inpatient complications, and stroke recurrence rates. Additional relevant non-clinical data will include patient and provider satisfaction scores, transfer patterns, and a cost analysis.

Assisted Rehabilitation Care During Post-stroke mANaGement: fEasibiLity Assessment
StrokeThe ARCANGEL study evaluates the feasibility of introducing ARC (Assisted Rehabilitation Care), a new device for home-based post-stroke rehabilitation in the current clinical practise. All the stroke survivors included in the study will received their own equipment to be used at home for 6 months.

Novel Brain Stimulation Therapies in Stroke Guided Expressions of Plasticity
StrokeCerebrovascular Disorders5 moreThe investigators ultimate goal is to personalize brain stimulation for stroke so outcomes of the upper limb can be maximized for each individual patient. Several groups including the investigators have recently theorized that personalizing stimulation so as to selectively stimulate iM1 in mild, and cPMd in patients with greater severity would help generalize benefits of stimulation. The investigator premise that variances in expressions of plasticity can explain how to best stratify patients for robust, personalized stimulation.

In Home VR Therapy
StrokeVirtual reality is a video game in which a person and their real-time movements are represented on a screen in a virtual environment. This study will compare the use of multi-user virtual reality (VR) to single-user VR to determine if either provides superior engagement in upper extremity therapy and greater motivation to perform repetitive training. Stroke survivors will participate in a longitudinal study in which they will have the opportunity to perform rehabilitative training with multi-user VR and single-user VR modes in their homes. They will use each mode for 2 weeks, completing 4 session per week, each session is 1 hour long. Upper extremity motor control, level of engagement, and active range of motion will be assessed at time points during the intervention period. Subject evaluations will take place before the intervention, at the midpoint of intervention (between switching from multi-user to single-user modes, or vice versa), and at the end of the intervention. The investigators hope to address two aims: Aim 1: To determine if the use in-home multi-user virtual reality treatment results in greater engagement in therapy compared with in-home single user virtual reality treatment. Aim 2: To determine if in-home virtual reality treatment results in greater practice The investigators hypothesize that stroke survivors will be more engaged in therapy when training with the multi-user VR system and this will translate into greater practice.

Interaction Between Trunk and Gait Performance in Both Healthy Adults and Stroke Patients
StrokeHealthy2 moreThe aim is to investigate the biomechanical interaction between trunk and gait performance in both healthy and stroke subjects. People after stroke often have an impaired trunk function, resulting in balance and gait disorders. Pathological movement patterns after stroke can be compared with normative data as motion capture systems provide more sensitive data to explore the interaction between trunk performance and gait in contrast to the clinical measures used in literature.