Despite recent advances in acute stroke management, many stroke patients suffer from long-term disability. Most stroke patients regain their function partially or fully during the first 3 to 6 months depending on many factors ; pre-stroke, stroke and post-stroke factors. Brain plasticity plays a major role during stroke recovery, and motor-relearning and brain plasticity shares the common mechanism. Successful neurorehabilitation is to drive beneficial plastic change and therefore to gain functional recovery. In this brief review, we will discuss mechanisms of brain plasticity engaged in stroke recovery and recent advanced management strategies for stroke recovery.

The Osler-Rendu-Weber syndrome is characterized by multiple telangiectasic lesions usually involving the mucous membranes, face and distal extremities. It is a congenital malformation inherited as an autosomal dominant trait and the lesions usually appear during adulthood. The major symptoms are recurrent epistaxis and gastrointestinal bleeding, but they may cause intracranial hemorrhage at the white matter of the brain stem, cerebellum and diencephalon. We report a case of typical autosomal dominant trait Osler-Rendu-Weber syndrome associated with intracranial hemorrhage at the right basal ganglia.
Basal Ganglia ; Brain Stem ; Cerebellum ; Diencephalon ; Epistaxis ; Extremities ; Hemorrhage ; Intracranial Hemorrhages ; Mucous Membrane ; Stroke ; Telangiectasia, Hereditary Hemorrhagic

No abstract available.
Thoracic Nerves*

No abstract available.
Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory* ; Spinal Stenosis* ; Spine*

No abstract available.
H-Reflex*

No abstract available.
Spinal Stenosis*

No abstract available.
Tibial Nerve*

No abstract available.
Gastrectomy* ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Stomach*

Hemiplegic gait is characterized by slow and poorly coordinated movements of the affected limb resulting from foot drop or equinus deformities. Ankle-foot orthoses(AFO) are frequently prescribed to improve the gait pattern of hemiplegics. Plastic AFO with different trimlines in controlling ankle motion can cause variable biomechanical effects. In this study, we analysed the biomechanical effect of donning AFO on hemiplegic gait and assessed whether any differences resulted when the AFO was modified. Gait events, plantar pressure, foot contact and centers of pressure(COP) parameters were measured with F-scan pressure sensitive insole system in 21 hemiplegic stroke patients with Brunnstrom's lower extremity stage 3. And those parameters were compaired in each of four different conditions: 1) before donning AFO, 2) donning AFO without any modification, 3) donning AFO with the dis tal part of metatarsal head trimmed off, 4) donning AFO with third condition and weaning a cushioned heel shoes. After donning AFO, total contact area and contact width were increased, and initial contact COP and mean COP were displaced medially. But contact length was not changed and initial contact COP and mean COP were not displaced anteroposteriorly. Anteroposterior displacement of COP, slope and velocity of COP were not also changed after donning AFO. Among various AFO adjustments, there were no significant changes of plantar pressure, foot contact and COP parameters. The results suggest that 1) AFO provides mediolateral stability, but does not provide additional functional rocker actions during stance phase and 2) There were no definite different biomechanical actions among various adjustments of plastic AFO in hemiplegic gait of Brunnstrom's lower extremity stage 3.
Ankle* ; Equinus Deformity ; Extremities ; Foot Orthoses* ; Foot* ; Gait ; Gait Disorders, Neurologic* ; Head ; Heel ; Humans ; Lower Extremity ; Metatarsal Bones ; Plastics ; Shoes ; Stroke ; Weaning

Palatal tremor is a rare disorder characterized by involuntary rhythmic movements of the soft palate. Palatal tremor is devided into symptomatic palatal tremor(SPT) and essential palatal tremor(EPT) on the basis of clinical features. SPT is associated with brain stem or cerebellar disease, whereas the EPT has no known etiology. Reverberant neural activity in the region of the brain stem or cerebellum within the Guillain-Mollaret triangle is believed to underlie SPT. We present a case of SPT associated with cerebellar lesion. Electromyographic recording from the levator veli palatini muscle and voice spectrogram analysis showed abnormal bursting activity time locked to the palatal movements. Botulinum toxin was injected into the levator veli palatini muscle to reduce the voice tremor. The pathology and management of this condition is briefly discussed.
Botulinum Toxins ; Brain Stem ; Cerebellar Diseases ; Cerebellum ; Hemorrhage* ; Palate, Soft ; Pathology ; Tremor* ; Voice