Effects of Taijiquan “yunshou” action motor imagery on hand motor function in hemiplegic patients after stroke

Abstract

Objective To study the effect of Taijiquan “yunshou” action motor imagery on hand motor function in hemiplegic patients after stroke .Methods From October 2012 to March 2013, 32 hospitalized hemiplegic stroke patients met the inclusion criteria in rehabilitation ward of a hospital in Shanghai were randomly divided into group A and group B .At the first of 1 -3 weeks, group A were treated routine rehabilitation training and Taijiquan “yunshou” action motor imagery therapy , group B were treated only routine rehabilitation training .At the 4-5 weeks , both of the groups haven’t got the regular motor imagery therapy and routine rehabilitation training , known as the washout period .At the last of 6-8 weeks, group A were treated only routine rehabilitation training , group B were treated routine rehabilitation training and Taijiquan “yunshou”action motor imagery therapy .Patients were assessed with Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment （ FMA） , Modified Barthel Index（MBI） and Hong Kong Edition of Functional Test for the Hemiplegic Upper Extremity Scale （FTHUE-HK） before the experiment, 3 weeks, 5 weeks and 8 weeks after rehabilitation therapy.Results Before the experiment , the differences between the A , B groups from scores of the FMA , MBI and FTHUE-HK were not statistically significant （P〉0.05）, while both of the groups had a significant improvement after the end of each stage than before the experiment （P〈0.01）.FMA score of group B at the 8 weeks was significantly higher than that of group A[（50.31 ±7.69） vs （42.50 ±10.09）;t=-2.46,P〈0.05].The MBI score was significantly higher in group A than B at the 3 weeks [（24.69 ±2.87）vs（20.63 ±3.10）,t=3.85,P〈0.01].The score of FTHUE-HK of group B was significantly higher than that of group A at the 3,8 weeks （t=-2.14,-4.40,respectively;P 〈0.05）.Conclusions With the time extend, the outcomes suggested that on the basic of routine rehabilitation training , Taijiquan “yunshou” action motor imagery therapy is very helpful to the recovery of hand function of stroke patients with hemiplegia . Key words: Stroke; Hemiplegia; Taijiquan; Motor imagery; Hand function; Rehabilitation training