Observation of activation status of motor-related cortex of patients with acute ischemic stroke through functional magnetic resonance imaging

BACKGROUND： About more than three fourth of patients with stroke have motor dysfunction at different degrees, especially hand motor dysfunction. Functional magnetic resonance imaging （fMRI） provides very reliable visible evidence for studying central mechanism of motor dysfunction after stroke, and has guiding and applicable value for clinical therapy. OBJECTIVE： To observe the activation of motor-related cortex of patients with acute ischemic stroke with functional magnetic resonance imaging, and analyze the relationship between brain function reconstruction and motor restoration after stroke. DESIGN ： A contrast observation SETTING： Medical Imaging Center, Fuzhou General Hospital of Nanjing Military Area Command of Chinese PLA. PARTICIPANTS ： Nine patients with acute ischemic stroke who suffered from motor dysfunction and received the treatment in the Fuzhou General Hospital of Nanjing Military Area Command of Chinese PLA between August and December 2005 were recruited, serving as experimental group. The involved patients including 5 male and 4 female, aged 16 to 87 years, all met the diagnostic criteria of cerebrovascular disease revised by The Fourth National Conference on Cerebrovascular Disease, mainly presenting paralysis in clinic, and underwent fMRI. Another 9 right handed persons matched in age and gender who simultaneously received healthy body examination were recruited, serving as control group. All the subjects were informed of the detected items. METHODS ： ①Muscular strength of patients of the experimental group was evaluated according to Brunnstrom grading muscular strength （Grade Ⅰ -Ⅳ）. ②Passive finger to finger motion was used as the mission （alternate style of quiescence, left hand motion and quiescence, nght hand motion was repeated 3 times, serving as 1 sequence, 20 s per block and 20 s time interval. The whole process of scanning was 260 s）, and subjects of 2 groups were given Bold-fMRI examination with GEl .5T double gradient 16-channel magnetic resonance imaging system. All the data were given off-line management, and fMRI was treated with SPM2 softwere. The activation of passive finger-to-finger motion-related cortex of subjects in 2 groups was observed. ③ Results of fMRI of subjects in 2 groups were compared. The size of activation region of brain and signal intensity were measured and unilateral index was calculated. The data of activation region of cerebral hemisphere of different sides at finger motion were given statistical analysis of unilateral index. Differences among unilateral indexes at hand motion were compared between intact and affected hands of patients in experimental group. The relationship between unilateral index and muscular strength of affected hands at affected hand motion in patients of the experimental group was performed Spearman correlation analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： ① The activation of motion-related cortex passive finger-to-finger motion between handedness and non-handedness was detected with functional magnetic resonance imaging of subjects in 2 groups. ②Relationship between unilateral index and muscular strength of subjects of experimental group at affected hand motion. RESULTS： Nine patients with ischemic stroke and 9 controls all participated in the final result analysis. ① Passive fMRI detection results between handedness and non-handedness of controls： Right-handed finger-to-finger motion of subjects of control group mainly activated contralateral sensonmotor cortex, and left-handed finger-to-finger motion not only activated above-mentioned brain region, but also activated supplementary motor area （SMA） of contralateral brain region; ②In the experimental group, sensorimotor cortex of contralateral hemisphere was activated at affected hand motion, and homolateral posterior parietal cortex （PPC）was also obviously activated. Bilateral sensonmotor cortex was activated at affected hand motion in 2 patients, and homolateral activation area was larger than contralateral one. At intact hand motion, contralateral sensorimotor cortex was activated, but no obvious homolateral activation area was found. ③ Correlation of unilateral index with muscular strength： Passive finger-to-finger fMRI （ between affected and intact hands of subjects of experimental group： Unilateral index at passive single finger motion of affected and intact hand of subjects of experimental group was -0.018±0.01 and 0.319±0.187, respectively, with significant difference （t=4.059, P 〈 0.01 ）. Unilateral index was significantly positively correlated with the muscular strength of affected hand at affected hand motion（r=0.834, P 〈 0.05）.CONCLUSION ： ①fMRI can objectively shows different activation states of motor cortex between patients with ischemic stroke and healthy controls, and brain functional compensation and recombination exist. Both primary sensorimotor cortex and SMA of bilateral hemispheres participant in affected hand motion, at the same time, parietal lobe and cortex of intact side also obviously participant in the affected hand motion. ②Correlation analysis of unilateral index and muscular strength of affected hand performed through fMRI can be used as an effective means to investigate the relationship between motion rehabilitation and brain functional recombination after stroke.

Influencing factors for the disappearance of hemispatial neglect in patients during acute stroke

BACKGROUND： Some researches are proved that early sitting balance and body motor control performed on patients with stroke and hemiplegia is related to functional prognosis. For patients with hemispatial neglect （HSN） dunng acute stroke, whether HSN disappearance is related to those trainings or not should be further studied. OBJECTIVE： To analyze the correlation between HSN disappearance and related intervention of patients during acute stroke. DESIGN ： Case analysis SETTING ： Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University PARTICIPANTS： A total of 21 patients with stroke were selected from the Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from May 2005 to March 2006. Diagnosis criteria： ① Stroke was diagnosed by CT and MRI; ② Diagnosis was coincidence with HSN evaluation criteria; ③ All cases were consent. Exclusion cnteda： Patients who had poly-focus, conscious disturbance, severe amentia and hard communication combined with aphasia were excluded. A total of 12 males and 9 females were included, and the mean age was （68±10） years. Among them, 14 patients had cerebral infarction and 7 had cerebral hemorrhage. METHODS： Disappearance and existence of HSN were analyzed with HSN evaluation criteria： body agnosia, left and nght agnosia, maintenance of supine position, place of things, sitting up straight, center of line measured by eyes, and cutting 30 lines with paring method, Items mentioned below belonged to HSN disappearance： ① without body agnosia; ② without left and nght agnosia; ③ be able to maintain supine position; ④ knowing place of things; ⑤ sitting up straight by one＇s own; ⑥ be able to measure the center of line by eyes; ⑦ be able to cut 30 lines with paring method. However, only one item belonged to HSN remnant; but only one item belonged to HSN remnant. Numbers of patients who were of body agnosia, left and nght agnosia and difficult maintenance of supine position were observed during acute period （within 1 week） and recovery period （at 2 weeks after onset）. Related factors with HSN disappearance contained time of physiotherapy, duration of sitting training （sitting in bed and near bedside： heels fallen to ground, feet loaded heavies, center of gravity located at middle line, head raised towards frontage） and hospitalized time. However, control group was not set up.Measurement data were expressed as Mean＋SD and compared with ttest; enumeration data were compared with Chi-square test and Mann-Whitney Utest. P 〈 0.05 was regarded as significant difference. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： ① HSN disappearance; ②Numbers of body agnosia, left and right agnosia and difficult maintenance of supine position;③ Correlation among therapeutic time, sitting-training time and hospitalized time. RESULTS： All 21 patients were involved in the final analysis. ① HSN disappearance： Among 21 cases, 2 patients had right HSN disappearance, 19 left HSN disappearance, 8 （38%, 8/21） HSN disappearance, and 13 （62%, 13/21） HSN remnant. Among 8 patients of HSN disappearance, symptoms of 4 cases lasted for 7 days and that of another 4 lasted for 8-12 days. ② Evaluation of HSN disappearance at various phases： Within 1 week, 19% （4/21） HSN patients had body agnosia, left and right agnosia; during recovery period, body agnosia of 20 cases was disappeared and that of 1 case was still survived. Within 1 week, cases with difficult maintenance of supine position were 67% （13/21）, but 43% （17/21） during recovery period. ③ Analysis of effective factors on HSN disappearance and related intervention： At acute phase, HSN disappearance through sitting training lasted for （2.5±1.3） days, and remaining HSN symptoms were relieved for （5.0±3.7） days. There was significant difference between them （ x^2= 3.96, P = 0.039）. The hospitalized time of patients with HSN disappearance and HSN remnant was （17.6±10.4）, （16.2±4.9） days, but there was no significant difference between them （x^2 = 1.41, P = 0.679）. Physiotherapy time of patients with HSN disappearance and HSN remnant was （11.1 ±7.5）, （11.4±4.1 ） days, but there was no significant difference between them （x^2 = 1.05, P = 0.894）. CONCLUSION： Early sitting training may play a possible role in HSN symptom disappearance of patients with stroke.

NEURON-SPECIFIC ENOLASE IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE ISCHEMIC STROKE AND RELATED DEMENTIA

Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were measured in 39 patients with ischemic stroke and 15 controls. There was a significant increase of CSF NSE in acute ischemic stroke patients as compared with the controls. The altered CSF NSE levels correlated well with the infarct size in CT scan. The CSF NSE levels were higher in 6-multiinfarct dementia (MID) patients who were diagnosed after 6-month follow-up than those in 22 non-MID patients of this series. Our research supports the view that CSF NSE can be a useful biochemical marker for brain ischemia. The importance of CSF NSE in the study of dementia related to ischemic stroke is worth further studies.

Factors associated with early neurological deterioration after intravenous thrombolysis with alteplase in patients with acute ischemic stroke

Objective To investigate the risk factors of early neurological deterioration(END)after intravenous thrombolysis(IVT)in patients with acute ischemic stroke(AIS).Methods We screened consecutive AIS patients from January 2006 to May 2015 in Tangshan Gongren Hospital.In this study,all patients were treated with in-