Active clinical trials for "Stroke"

The purpose of this study is to find alternative treatments for patient's suffering from depression after having a stroke.This study aims to show that accelerated rTMS is a safe, effective,and convenient treatment for patient's suffering from post-stroke depression in the acute to subacute phase. This will be an open label trial and thus all participants will receive the active rTMS intervention.

Transcranial electrical stimulation (tCES) is a non-invasive and safe treatment, which uses a low direct current or alternating current to change the excitability of the cerebral cortex. The tCES has been applied in clinical trials related to rehabilitation research in recent years, and the safety and effectiveness have also been established. However,the existing tCES products effect on the whole brain networks and lack special waveforms. Therefore, we aim to develop a wearable tCES with high definition and special waveforms in this study. This novel stimulation system will result in more precise and focal stimulation of selected brain regions with special waveforms to display better neuromodulation performance. We expect that the novel high-definition tCES (HD-tCES) combined with the upper extremity rehabilitation can shorten the duration of rehabilitative periods, improve stroke patients' activity of daily living, reduce the care burden of patients' family, and subsequently decrease the cost of health care insurance.

Robotic therapy can deliver larger amounts of upper extremity movement practice for stroke rehabilitation. Although the treatment effects were supported in studies, there are still limitations in clinical intervention. The study will use the robot-assisted hand rehabilitation with a Gloreha device. Thirty patients with moderate motor deficits were recruited and randomized into 2 treatment groups, AB or BA (A = 12 times of robot-assisted hand rehabilitation, B = 12 times of standard therapy) for 12 weeks of treatment (Sixty minutes a time, twice a week), 1 month of break between conditions for washout period. The performance was assessed by a blinded assessor for five times (pre-test1, post-test 1, pre-test2, post-test 2, follow up at three month). The outcome measures Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Limb section(FMA-UE),Box and block test(BBT), Maximal voluntary contraction(MVC) of extensor digitorum communis(EDC), Abductor pollicis brevis(APB), Flexor digitorum(FD), Dynanometer, Semmes-Weinstein hand monofilament (SWM), Revision of the Nottingham Sensory Assessment (EmNSA), Modified Barthel Index. Collected data will be analyzed with ANOVA test by SPSS version 20.0, and alpha level was set at 0.05. The hypothesis are robot-assisted hand rehabilitation with a Gloreha device has positive effects on sensory, motor, hand function, and ADL ability among patients with stroke.

Our primary aim is to investigate whether remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) as an adjunctive treatment can improve long-term recovery in acute stroke patients as an adjunct to standard treatment.

Ischemic stroke is accompanied by a three to four hundred percent increase in the brain's extracellular fluid (ECF) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentration of glutamate, which diffuses and damages surrounding neurons. In this study we tested our hypothesis that blood glutamate levels can be reduced by hemofiltration, resulting in increased extracellular clearance of glutamate and attenuated neurodegeneration, and that decreased blood glutamate levels can provide significant neuroprotection against stroke-associated neurodegeneration, dysfunction and death. Our primary outcome of interest was to assess safety of hemofiltration in acute ischemic stroke patients.

This study will investigate the feasibility of delivering swallowing therapy using surface electromyography as a means of biofeedback to patients with dysphagia in the acute stroke setting. It will investigate trends in efficacy by comparing biofeedback therapy to usual care. The results will inform future dosing and efficacy studies.

Stroke creats dependancy of patients due to various associated impairments. The use of low-cost technologies for neurological rehabilitation may be beneficial for the treatment of these patients.

Adherence to rehabilitation interventions is associated with functional outcomes (e.g. independence in daily activities, return of motor function) after stroke. Low adherence to rehabilitation home programs is common after stroke. Interventions delivered via mobile health applications demonstrated positive effects on adherence to health behaviors (e.g. medication routines, smoking cessation). The investigators developed the iADAPT mobile application to support adherence to Strategy Training. Strategy Training is an iterative rehabilitation intervention the promotes goal setting, planning, and self-monitoring after stroke. This study examines the effects of the iADAPT mobile health application relative to a workbook on adherence to Strategy Training after stroke.

The major issue for a person who has suffered a stroke is the severe impairment affecting the hand and the high risk to have a poor recovery associated. Innovative approaches are needed in the next future, translating recent advances from neuro-engineering, into feasible devices for rehabilitation care. The FP7-EU project MYOSENS aims to translate known motor control logic from sEMG prosthetic control, to rehabilitation robotics. The target is to promote the closing of sensory-motor loop on the basis of intention to move, as detected from residual sEMG (i.e. Extensor Digitorum Communis, Flexor Digitorum Profundus).

Robotic rehabilitation is promising to promote function in stroke patients. The assist as needed training paradigm has shown to stimulate neuroplasticity but often cannot be used because stroke patients are too impaired to actively control the robot against gravity. Aim of this study is to present a novel robotic approach based on fully assisted functional movements and to examine the effect of the intervention in terms of motor function improvement in subjects with chronic stroke in the short term and at 6-month follow up. A preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention in improving activity and participation in the short term is also performed. Further, the study aims to verify whether some instrumental measures (using kinematics, EMG and EEG) may help gain insight into the mechanisms leading to improved motor ability following the robotic intervention and can be used to predict functional recovery.