Effectiveness of Repetitive Facilitative Exercise Combined with Electrical Stimulation Therapy to Improve Very Severe Paretic Upper Limbs in with Stroke Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Table 1
Baseline characteristics of participants.
NMES
RFE
NMES under RFE
CT
value
Number of patients
25
22
26
26
Age (year)
n.s.
Sex (male/female)
16/9
15/7
19/7
17/9
n.s.
Paralysis side (right/left)
11/14
12/10
13/13
12/14
n.s.
Days after stroke onset
n.s.
Lesion type (ischemic/hemorrhagic)
13/12
10/12
11/15
13/13
n.s.
MAS biceps brachii (0/1/1+/2/3)
11/12/1/1/0
10/7/3/2/0
12/8/3/3/0
14/8/3/1/0
n.s.
Wrist flexors (0/1/1+/2/3)
12/10/3/0/0
10/9/2/1/0
9/13/3/1/0
10/11/4/1/0
n.s.
SIAS Knee-Mouth test
1.0 [0.0-1.0]
1.0 [0.3-2.0]
1.0 [0.0-1.0]
1.0 [0.0-1.0]
n.s.
Finger-Function test
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
0.0 [0.0-1.0]
0.0 [0.0-1.0]
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
n.s.
FMA upper limb total score
4.0 [4.0-9.0]
4.0 [4.0-8.8]
4.0 [3.0-8.8]
4.0 [4.0-5.8]
n.s.
Shoulder/elbow
0.0 [0.0-4.0]
0.5 [0.0-5.0]
0.0 [0.0-0.8]
0.0 [0.0-2.0]
n.s.
Wrist
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
n.s.
Finger
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
0.0 [0.0-0.0]
n.s.
FIM motor
53.0 [40.0-56.0]
47.0 [41.0-54.0]
37.5 [28.5-50.0]
35.5 [28.0-46.0]
0.02
Cognitive
27.0 [23.0-30.0]
29.0 [19.3-32.8]
24.0 [19.0-31.0]
24.5 [21.3-27.8]
n.s.
Total
76.0 [64.0-90.0]
75.0 [65.3-83.3]
64.5 [51.3-73.8]
58.0 [51.0-72.0]
n.s.
NMES: neuromuscular electrical stimulation; RFE: repetitive facilitative exercise; CT: conventional training; MAS: Modified Ashworth Scale; SIAS: Stroke Impairment Assessment Set; FMA: Fugl-Meyer Assessment; FIM: Functional Independence Measure. Continuous data are presented as . SIAS, FMA, and FIM scores are presented as median [lower and upper quartile]. n.s.: not significant; significant differences in FIM motor subscore between CT and NMES ().
