• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.119-135
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• 2020

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of bimanual intensive training on Upper Extremity Function and activities of daily living in stroke patients. Methods : The subjects were 18 patients who were diagnosed with hemiplegic stroke. They were randomly assigned to bimanual intensive training group (n=9) and unilateral intensive group (n=9). Bimanual training group performed bimanual task and unilateral training group performed one hand task for 1 hour per session, 5 times a week, for 4 weeks. Chi-square test, Wilcoxon signed rank test, and Mann-Whitney U test were used for analysis. Results : The results showed that, upper extremity motor function and bimanual coordination were significantly improved in patients in the bimanual training group (p<.05). Additionally, the ratio of affected hand use and amount of use/quality of movement in the hemiplegic upper extremity in activities of daily living for patients in the bimanual training group were significantly improved (p<.05). Although the unilateral group improved motor upper extremity function and activities of daily living in the upper extremity (p<.05), it was not significantly different from that in the bimanual training group. In between-group comparison, bimanual coordination and ratio of the affected hand use in a day were significantly different (p<.05). Conclusion : It is reasonable to conclude that bimanual intensive training therapy is an effective intervention method to improve upper extremity motor function, and activities of daily living in stroke patients.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.7-17
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• 2015

Objective : To investigate the current researches which identify the improvement of bilateral coordination skill of children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy after bimanual intensive training. Methods : We systematically examined papers published in journals from 2004 to 2014, using RISS, Pubmed. Total 6 studies were included in the analyses. Result : All of the selected 6 studies were foreign papers, and the Pedro score was 5 or more. Among various interventions, modified CIMT designs were the most. The primary outcome measure tools are AHA and JTTHF for evaluating bilateral coordination and hand functions, and QUEST, ABILHAND-Kids, COPM, GAS, PEDI, 3-D movement kinematics were used for evaluating various aspects of effectiveness of interventions. Conclusion : Through this systematic review, it is identified that bilateral intensive training provides positive effects to not only hand functions but also bilateral coordination. Furthermore, it also provided supports to participate in ADL requiring bilateral coordination. These results will provides evidence concerning the effectiveness of BIT for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.63-73
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• 2014

Objective : The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of crafts and handwriting on bilateral coordination during task performance. Methods : Randomly selected 30 college students without hand disability were invited for the study, and grouped 3(test group 1 for crafts, test group 2 for handwriting, and control group) with 10 students per group respectively. Then Jebsen-taylor hand function test, Purdue pegboard test, and Minnesota manual dexterity test were employed for evaluating changes before and after the intervention. Results : After training intervention of crafts and handwriting for two test groups, test groups showed better bilateral coordination significantly than the control group. Especially test group 1(crafts) showed a bigger difference at Jebsen-taylor hand function test, and likely test group 2(handwriting) did at Purdue pegboard test. Conclusion : It was found that crafts increase bilateral coordination, while handwriting increase hand dexterity during task performance. That is, crafts and handwriting affect tasks differently. Further studies applying various crafts and handwriting for many age groups will be helpful for identifying the better way of occupational intervention for individuals in lack of bilateral coordination.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2013

Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy(CIMT) is considered as one of the most interesting upper extremity rehabilitation in the field of neurorehabilitation. CIMT is an intensive training provided in the affected upper limb for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week for 2 weeks, while unaffected arm is restrained for 90% of waking hours. Recently, instead of CIMT, modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy(mCIMT) has been applied because of the clinical limitations of CIMT. CIMT or mCIMT studies have used various outcome instruments to measure different aspects of upper limb function after intervention. There are various kinds of evaluation tools to measure different aspects of upper limb function after CIMT intervention. It has been proven that Pediatric Motor Activity Log(PMAL), Quality of Upper Extremities Skills Test(QUEST), Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function(MAULF), Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) are effective. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cortical change in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy after CIMT. As a result, use-dependent cortical reorganization was revealed. Also, increased activity of the contralateral motor cortex and decreased activity of the ipsilateral cortex were found. It supports the mechanism of cortical reorganization, the principles of neural plasticity and specifically activation of the contralateral cortex, for improving upper limb function after CIMT.