Recovery of an injured corticospinal tract during the early stage of rehabilitation following pontine infarction.

Abstract

Motor weakness is a common and important sequela of stroke, and motor recovery is mostly achieved within 3 months following stroke (Jorgensen et al., 1995; Fujii and Nakada, 2003), suggesting the importance of active rehabilitation during the early stage of stroke. Many studies have reported on neurological recovery during this period, however, little is known about pontine infarction (Jang et al., 2007; Kwon and Jang, 2012; Kwon et al., 2013; Yeo and Jang, 2013; Chang et al., 2014; Jang and Yeo, 2014; Seo and Jang, 2015). In this study, we attempted to demonstrate the recovery of an injured corticospinal tract (CST) using diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) during the early stage of rehabilitation following pontine infarction.