Abstract
Most of motor recovery usually occurs within the first 3 months after stroke. Herein is reported a remarkable late recovery of the right upper-limb motor function after a left middle cerebral artery stroke. This recovery happened progressively, from two to 12 years post-stroke onset, and along a proximo-distal gradient, including dissociated finger movements after 5 years. Standardized clinical assessment and quantified analysis of the reach-to-grasp movement were repeated over time to characterize the recovery. Twelve years after stroke onset, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) analyses of the corticospinal tracts were carried out to investigate the plasticity mechanisms and efferent pathways underlying motor control of the paretic hand. Clinical evaluations and quantified movement analysis argue for a true neurological recovery rather than a compensation mechanism. DTI showed a significant decrease of fractional anisotropy, associated with a severe atrophy, only in the upper part of the left corticospinal tract (CST), suggesting an alteration of the CST at the level of the infarction that is not propagated downstream. The finger opposition movement of the right paretic hand was associated with fMRI activations of a broad network including predominantly the contralateral sensorimotor areas. Motor evoked potentials were normal and the selective stimulation of the right hemisphere did not elicit any response of the ipsilateral upper limb. These findings support the idea that the motor control of the paretic hand is mediated mainly by the contralateral sensorimotor cortex and the corresponding CST, but also by a plasticity of motor-related areas in both hemispheres. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a high quality upper-limb recovery occurring more than 2 years after stroke with a genuine insight of brain plasticity mechanisms.
Highlights
Motor recovery usually occurs within the first 3 months after stroke and is more limited for upper limbs than lower limbs [1,2,3,4,5,6]
FuglMeyer Upper Extremity Scale (FMA-UE) showed that proximal motility improved between 3 months and 5 years and remained stable, whereas hand motility improved until the 12th year, indicating a proximodistal gradient in recovery
Data collected at 5, 9, and 12 years post-stroke onset are presented in Table 2, Figure 1
Summary
Motor recovery usually occurs within the first 3 months after stroke and is more limited for upper limbs than lower limbs [1,2,3,4,5,6]. A patient with a complete motor deficit of the right upper limb after stroke was followed for 12 years He presented a remarkable late recovery of the upper-limb motility, in terms of strength, individual finger movement, and manual dexterity, 5 years after stroke onset. The aim of the present study was to assess objectively the upper-limb recovery of this patient over a long-time period and to explore the potential mechanisms underlying this unusually delayed recovery. For this purpose, 3D kinematic analysis were carried out as well as a neuro-anatomo-functional study of the CST, using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) techniques
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