NCT04369235

Transcranial Electrical Stimulation With Special Waveform for Upper Extremity Rehabilitation for Patients With Stroke

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 24 (actual)
• Sponsor: Taipei Medical University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 20 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Transcranial electrical stimulation (tCES) is contemporarily important issues in the advanced rehabilitation medicine. tCES can selectively change the excitability of regional cortex with non-invansive and safety properties. Therefore, the investigators aim to develop a set of tCES system with special waveforms for using in clinical rehabilitation of upper extremities. This developed tCES system is smaller than all commercial available products, which could be conveniently and portably wore on head for clinical rehabilitation. In addition, the present tCES system with special waveforms developing by the investigators is much more efficient on improving neuroplasticity than the traditional transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in rats. The investigators hope the tCES system combined with the rehabilitation of body extremities will become a routine treatment for stroke patients at hospitals or residential rehabilitation in the future.

Detailed description

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) were both demonstrated to have therapeutic potentials to rapidly induce neuroplastic effects in various rehabilitation training regimens. Recently, the investigators have developed a novel transcranial electrostimulation device that can flexibly output an electrical current with combined tDCS and iTBS waveforms. However, limited studies have determined the therapeutic effects of this special waveform combination on clinical rehabilitation. Herein, the investigators aiming to brain stimulation effects of tDCS-iTBS on upper-limb motor function in chronic stroke patients. Twenty-four subjects with a chronic stroke were randomly assigned to a real non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS; subjects received the real tDCS+iTBS output) group or a sham NIBS (subjects received sham tDCS+iTBS output) group. All subjects underwent 1 h treatment of a conventional rehabilitation program (3 days a week for 6 weeks), where a 20-min NIBS intervention was simultaneously applied during conventional rehabilitation. Outcome measures were assessed before and immediately after the intervention period: Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity (FMA-UE), Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test (JTT), and Finger-to-Nose Test (FNT).

Conditions

• Stroke

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	tCES	The positions of the lesion side primary motor cortex were defined as C3/C4 according to the international 10-20 system of electroencephalograms. tCES will be applied for 20 minutes at an intensity of 1.0 -1.5 mA direct current stimulation and a specific-added waveform each time, 3 times a week, lasting for 6 weeks.
DEVICE	Sham tCES	The positions of the lesion side primary motor cortex were defined as C3/C4 according to the international 10-20 system of electroencephalograms. Sham tCES will consist of a 5-second ramp up to 1.0-1.5 mA direct current stimulation and a specific-added waveform followed immediately by a 5-second ramp down, no current in the middle 19 minutes 40 seconds, and a ramp-up and ramp-down period during the last 10 seconds.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-03-02
• Primary completion: 2020-01-31
• Completion: 2020-04-30
• First posted: 2020-04-30
• Last updated: 2021-04-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Taiwan