A new set of tests can help predict whether an individual patient will recover the use of their hand and arm after a stroke, report New Zealand researchers.
Neuroscience Professor Winston Byblow, from the University of Auckland, and colleagues, report their findings in the current issue of the journal Brain.
"This is the first demonstration that there is a combination of techniques that can be used to predict an individual patient's chance of recovery," Byblow tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"Knowing the difference between who will make some recovery and who will make none is information that the therapists have been asking for a long time."
After a stroke interrupts blood supply to the brain, many people are left unable to use their hand and arm properly, with some limbs being completely paralysed. But, says Byblow, it is very difficult to predict how well an individual will recover with the help of therapy, and who has been damaged beyond the point of no return.
"The very challenging part is you can examine two patients within days of their stroke and they can look exactly the same, but one will make a perfect recovery and one will make no recovery," he says.
"You can imagine the challenge that the therapist who is going to be working with that person is facing because they really don't know what to expect."
Building on research published in 2007, Byblow and colleagues have now developed a set of tests that can be used to predict the potential for recovery of a person who has just suffered a stroke, before they start rehabilitation.
Patients are first scored on how well they are able to perform a number of clinical tasks, such a reaching forward and grasping a glass of water. If their score is high, they are regarded as having a high potential for recovery.
A low score leads to a second test, which involves magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex to see if the nerves in the part of the brain that control the limbs are still working.
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Stroke recovery prediction tool created