Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in the sensory threshold between the paretic and nonparetic sides of hemiplegic patients. 28 patients who were hemiplegic post-stroke (14 men and 14 women) participated in the electrical sensory and pain thresholds study; 22 patients who were hemiplegic post-stroke (13 men, 9 women) participated in a study measureing the sensory threshold with light touch. Electrical sensory and pain thresholds were measured in the forearm via transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. The light-touch threshold was measured in the forearm using monofilaments. The light-touch, electrical sensory, and pain thresholds for the paretic side were significantly higher than for the nonparetic side in our population, respectively. In both the nonparetic and paretic sides, the male group generally showed higher thresholds for pain and sensation than did the female group. These results suggest that the different evaluations of sensory thresholds performed in this study for healthy rehabilitation will be a valuable clinical tool in hemiplegic patients after stroke.
Highlights
Sensory impairment is common following stroke [1]
A significant difference materialized between male (37.5 ± 1.7) and female (32.1 ± 0.9) when the electrical sensory threshold was measured for the nonparetic side; this threshold was significantly higher in male than in female (P = 0.021) (Figure 2(a2))
When the electrical pain threshold was analyzed without taking sex into account, a significant difference existed between the nonparetic side (73.2 ± 2.4) and paretic side (86.6 ± 1.9)
Summary
Sensory impairment is common following stroke [1]. After stroke, a loss of physical connections (synapses, dendrites, axons) linking brain regions appears from impairment to the axons to the infarct site [2]. Borstad et al suggested that stroke associated structural changes to the sSTR may have relation to after stroke sensory function [2]. It is important to build an understanding of discriminative sensory impairment because this type of subtle sensory disorder might be related to functional outcomes in patients who are rehabilitating after a stroke [6,7]. It has been established that sensory impairment is detrimental to motor recovery [8,9]. The functional part of sensory acuity is often forecast by using discrimination tests that evaluate the quality of sensation [18]. The assessment of change in a given sensory threshold could be a profitable tool in the clinical evaluation of pain [19].
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