• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.114-121
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• 2008

Within 2 to 5 months after stroke, patients recover variable degrees of function, depending on the initial deficit. An impaired hand function is one of the most serious disability in chronic stroke patients. Therefore, to evaluate the extent of motor dysfunction in the hemiplegic hand is important in stroke rehabilitation. In this paper, motor recoveries in 8 chronic stroke patients with Fugl-Meyer (FM) and white matter changes before and after the training program with a designed bilateral symmetrical arm trainer (BSAT) system were examined. The training was performed at 1 hr/day, 5 days/week during 6weeks. In all patients, FM was significantly improved after the 6-week training. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) results showed that tractional anisotropy ratio (FAR) and fiber tracking ratio (FTR) in the posterior internal capsule were significantly increased after the training. It seemed that the cortical reorganization was induced by the 6 week training with the BSAT. In all parameters proposed this study, a significant correlation was found between these parameters (FAR and FTR) and motor recoveries. This study demonstrated that DTI technique could be useful in predicting motor recovery in chronic hemiparetic patients.