Microstructural status of ipsilesional and contralesional corticospinal tract correlates with motor skill in chronic stroke patients.

ABSTRACT: Greater loss in structural integrity of the ipsilesional corticospinal tract (CST) is associated with poorer motor outcome in patients with hemiparetic stroke. Animal models of stroke have demonstrated that structural remodeling of white matter in the ipsilesional and contralesional hemispheres is associated with improved motor recovery. Accordingly, motor recovery in patients with stroke may relate to the relative strength of CST degeneration and remodeling. This study examined the relationship between microstructural status of brain white matter tracts, indexed by the fractional anisotropy (FA) metric derived from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data, and motor skill of the stroke-affected hand in patients with chronic stroke. Voxelwise analysis revealed that motor skill significantly and

SUBMITTER: Schaechter JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2780023 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature