Atrophy of spared gray matter tissue predicts poorer motor recovery and rehabilitation response in chronic stroke.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

Although the motor deficit after stroke is clearly due to the structural brain damage that has been sustained, this relationship is attenuated from the acute to chronic phases. We investigated the possibility that motor impairment and response to constraint-induced movement therapy in patients with chronic stroke may relate more strongly to the structural integrity of brain structures remote from the lesion than to measures of overt tissue damage.

Methods

Voxel-based morphometry analysis was performed on MRI scans from 80 patients with chronic stroke to investigate whether variations in gray matter density were correlated with extent of residual motor impairment or with constraint-induced movement therapy-induced motor recovery.

Results

Decrease

SUBMITTER: Gauthier LV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3265680 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature