Investigation on rehabilitation performance of combining tDCS and FES on upper limb motor functions in patients with chronic stroke / 中国康复医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To observe the efficacy of combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and functional electrical stimulation (FES) therapy on the upper limb function of chronic stroke patients.Method:Three subjects with chronic stroke patients received active tDCS + FES therapy for 4 weeks after 4 weeks of baseline observation.Surface electromyography (sEMG),transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and upper limb part of the Fugl-Meyer assessment (U-FMA) were used to assess the performance of the subjects pre-and-post the intervention.Result:U-FMA scores improved after the intervention.There are five of the seven tested active muscles showed an increasing change in surface electromyography activation levels.Portion of the short latency cortical inhibition and facilitation data of the contralateral hemisphere tested with TMS paired pulse stimulation showed a change post the intervention.Conclusion:Subjects showed improvement with their upper limb motor function,thus the tDCS combine FES therapy may be a promising rehabilitation method for upper limb motor function of stroke in chronic stages.