Clinical potential and neuroplastic effect of targeted virtual reality based intervention for distal upper limb in post-stroke rehabilitation: a pilot observational study

Abstract

Purpose A library of Virtual Reality (VR) tasks has been developed for targeted post-stroke rehabilitation of distal upper extremities. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the clinical potential of the targeted VR-based therapeutic intervention in a small cohort of patients specifically with chronic stroke. Furthermore, our aim was to explore the possible neuronal reorganizations in corticospinal pathways in response to the distal upper limb targeted VR-intervention. Methodology Five patients with chronic stroke were enrolled in this study and were given VR-intervention of 20 sessions of 45 min each. Clinical Scales, cortical-excitability measures (using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation): Resting Motor Threshold (RMT), and Motor Evoked Potential (MEP) amplitude, task-specific performance metrics i.e., Time taken to complete the task (TCT), smoothness of trajectory, relative % error were evaluated pre- and post-intervention to evaluate the intervention-induced improvements. Results Pre-to post-intervention improvements were observed in Fugl-Meyer Assessment (both total and wrist/hand component), Modified Barthel Index, Stroke Impact Scale, Motor Assessment Scale, active range of motion at wrist, and task-specific outcome metrics. Pre-to post-intervention ipsilesional RMT reduced (mean ∼9%) and MEP amplitude increased (mean ∼29µV), indicating increased cortical excitability at post-intervention. Conclusion VR-training exhibited improved motor outcomes and cortical-excitability in patients with stroke. Neurophysiological changes observed in terms of improved cortical-excitability might be a consequence of plastic reorganization induced by VR-intervention.