BackgroundShoulder pain is reported to be one of the major challenges faced in the functional recovery of patients in rehabilitation following a stroke. In such cases, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been used as an additional therapeutic tool for improvements in central and peripheral pain. The aim of the proposed study is to evaluate the effect of tDCS when combined with upper limb physical therapy on pain intensity and functional improvement in stroke survivors with shoulder pain in the hemiplegic limb.MethodsA randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, clinical trial is proposed. The volunteers will be randomly allocated to receive passive movement on the upper limb, which will be performed by the therapist for 20 min followed by either active tDCS or sham tDCS (current stimulation for 30 s) during simultaneous physical activity of the upper limb (“mini-bike”) for 20 min, totaling 40 min of intervention performed in 10 consecutive sessions. The anode electrode will be positioned over the primary motor cortex with a current of 2 mA and the cathode electrode will be positioned in the supraorbital region contralateral to the anode. The primary outcome will be shoulder pain intensity, which will be measured using the visual analog scale (VAS) on three occasions: 1) pre-intervention; 2) after 10 interventions (5 weekly sessions, for 2 weeks); and 3) 30 days after the end of the interventions. The secondary outcomes will be motor performance, upper limb function, and quality of life.Trial registrationBrazilian Registry of Clinical Trials, RBR-8F5MNY. Registered on June 2, 2017.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-019-3266-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Resumo. O Método dos Elementos de Contorno é uma técnica numérica eficiente, que vem conquistando interesse cada vez maior no meio acadêmico e industrial. Apresenta grandes vantagens no trato de problemas com fronteiras móveis, concentração de tensões, fratura, contato, m eios infinitos e semi-infinitos e outros casos em que as técnicas de domínio não são adequadas nem simples de empregar. Algumas deficiências na solução de problemas que incluem de fontes, sorvedouros, forças de inércia e outras ações similares têm sido superadas por novas estratégias, como a formulação que faz a integração no contorno das funções de interpolação auxiliares (MECID), aproximando adequadamente ações de domínio generalizadas. Nesta pesquisa, aplica-se a MECID para gerar a distribuição de pressão ao longo da superfície de contato de um mancal hidrodinâmico. A conformação geométrica das superfícies pode ser qualquer, mas para ilustrar a aplicabilidade e precisão do método, apresenta-se um exemplo unidimensional simples, com variação linear da camada de lubrificante. Palavras-chave. Mancal Hidrodinâmico, Elementos de Contorno, Funções de Base Radial.

Background: Biofeedback tools have been used in stroke rehabilitation to improve motor performance. In a previous study, we tested a biofeedback system based on inertial motion trackers, coupled with a vibratory module. Limitations of vibratory feedback, combined with data showing efficacy of combining visual and auditory feedback, justified changing the biofeedback.