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Purpose: Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability in adult population and more than half of the survivors are left with significant impairment. Rehabilitation options are still limited to address the need for effective recovery from motor impairment, especially for upper limb functions. In the last decade, roboticassisted arm training has been an emerging research topic. However, there is still fundamental need to study safety, feasibility and effectiveness of each device before implementing them into standard rehabilitation protocols. In this case series we demonstrate results from a pilot clinical trial aiming to evaluate an robotic exoskeleton specifically designed for rehabilitation of arm motor functions. Methods: Two chronic left hemiplegic patients (Case1: male, 66 yo, 48 months since stroke ; Case 2: female, 58 yo, 12 months since stroke onset) participated in the study. Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), Fugl Meyer (FM), isokinetic system (Biodex), Barthel Index (BI) were used before and after treatment to assess spasticity, motor recovery, proprioception and muscle strength, and ADL, respectively. Participants underwent a total of 12 sessions (60 min/session, 3 sessions/week, during 4 weeks) robotic-assisted arm training by using a robotic exoskeleton device, HoustonBionics ExoRehabUE1 (Istanbul, Turkey). Results: Both participants have demonstrated improvement in all outcome measures, with a higher improvement in proprioception. None of the training sessions were missed due to excessive fatigue or lack of motivation. Moreoever, they reported high motivation to participate in the treatment and demonstrated considerable increase in virtual game scores. Conclusions: Robotic-assisted arm training with the HoustonBionis ExoRehabUE1 device is well tolerated, and found to be feasible in rehabilitation of arm impairment after stroke. Improvement in movement and sensory functions were observed. Preliminary results from this pilot trial will be used for a randomized clinical trial with a larger sample size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Although pain is a protective sense of the body to avoid further injuries, it may influence other somatosensory and somatomotor inputs related with its region. On the other hand proprioception is one of the most important somatosensory input that protect body from injury. Evidence suggests that pain have counfounding influence on muscle inhibition and proprioception in knee problems. Therefore the aim of the study was to investigate whether low back pain, which is so common health problem even in young individuals, lead to loss in proprioception sense of trunk. Methods: Thirtyeight individuals aged between 19 and 47 were voluntarly participated in the study. Pain intensity was assessed with VAS. Roland Morris and Ostwestry disability scales were questioned to see disability level. Propioception of trunk was measured by belt with laser pointer. Results: Low back pain intensity was found to be correlated with proprioception sense of trunk in lateral flexion movement. (p=0,004, r=0,461) There was no correlation between pain intensity and proprioceptive measurements of flexion and extension movements (p>0.05) as well as disability scores (p>0.05) Conclusions: We have revealed that pain can disturb proprioception sense of trunk especially in lateral flexion direction even the subjects were so young. The association of pain with proprioception sense of trunk should prompt future studies to reveal influence of pain on somatosensory factors in low back pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cortical relay time (CRT) is a neurophysiologic method that measures transmission between sensory and motor cortices. In this study, we calculated CRT to evaluate intrahemispheric transmission in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). We recorded the following parameters: 1) long latency reflexes (LLRs), 2) motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), and 3) somatosensoryevoked potentials (SEPs) according to previously published reports, and cortical relay time was calculated using the following formula: Latency of LLR II - (onset latency of MEP response + latency of N20 response of SEP). CRT was shorter in patients with apraxia compared with patients without apraxia. The findings may raise the possibility of intrahemispheric aberrant conduction or abnormal synaptic reorganization in the presence of apraxia in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]