Effect of Mirror Therapy Versus Bilateral Arm Training for Rehabilitation After Chronic Stroke

China Medical University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Stroke

Treatments

Other: Bilateral arm training

Other: Mirror therapy

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02548234

CMUH104-REC3-052

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study purpose is to compare the efficacy of mirror therapy and bilateral arm training on movement strategies of the affected upper extremity and functional outcome in chronic stroke patients.

Full description

Study background: Approximately 80% of stroke survivors have an upper and/or lower limb impairment (Barker 1997), and impairment of the arm explains up to 50% of the variance in functional limitation after stroke. Brain imaging research using magnetoencephalography found that mirror therapy combined with bilateral arm training could potentially aid stroke rehabilitation by normalizing an asymmetrical pattern of movement-related beta desynchronization in primary motor cortex. However, different neural mechanisms may cause different effect of motor control recovery after the two different approaches, which have yet to be studied. Study purpose：To compare the efficacy of mirror therapy and bilateral arm training on movement strategies of the affected upper extremity and functional outcome in chronic stroke patients. Study method: This was a single-blind, randomized, comparative efficacy research. Sixty participants with chronic stroke will be recruited in the occupational therapy clinics at four hospitals and randomly assigned to the mirror therapy and bilateral arm training groups. The intervention will consist of 1.5 hrs/day, 5 days/wk for 4 wks, including 3 days of hospital-based therapy and 5 days of home practice. Primary outcomes were muscular properties (grip strength) and sensorimotor measurements. Secondary outcomes included measures of daily functions to gain insight about movement capabilities. The validity and reliability of all measurements have been proposed. Finally, the Mann-Whitney U test and the Fisher exact test will be used to compare the significant differences between the two approaches. The effect size of dependent variables will be reported also.

Enrollment

29 patients

Sex

All

Ages

21+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

more than 6 months after onset of an ischemic or hemorrhage stroke
no excessive spasticity on all joints of the affected arm

Exclusion criteria

history of stroke or other neurologic, neuromuscular, or orthopedic disease
participation in other experimental rehabilitation or drug studies concurrent with this study