Article

Many studies have reported that stroke patients can be accompanied by motor
deficit of the unaffected extremities as well as the affected extremities. This
suggests that neural control of motor function of unaffected extremities might be
changed following stroke. However, very little is known about this topic. Using
functional MRI (fMRI), we investigated changes in neural control of motor
function of the unaffected hand in hemiparetic patients with cerebral infarct.
Thirty-five hemiparetic stroke patients were recruited for this study. fMRI was
performed at 1.5T during either affected or unaffected hand flexion-extension
movements. We evaluated motor function of the affected upper extremity using the
upper Motricity index (UMI) and the medical research council (MRC) scale for
finger extensor. From fMRI, LI (laterality index) was calculated for assessment
of relative activity in the ipsilateral versus the contralateral primary
sensorimotor cortex. Positive correlation between LIs was observed during
affected and unaffected hand movements (r=0.670, p=0.000). LI of unaffected hand
movements was also correlated with the affected UMI (r=0.408, p=0.015) and MRC of
the affected hand extensor (r=0.362, p=0.033). We demonstrated that the
ipsilateral (affected) motor cortex was recruited by unaffected hand movements in
proportion to poor motor function of the affected upper extremity.

Langue : ANGLAIS