Pain that occurs after a stroke lowers the quality of life. Such post-stroke pain is caused in part by the brain lesion itself, called central post-stroke pain. We investigated the analgesic effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in stroke patients through quantitative sensory testing. Fourteen participants with central post-stroke pain (7 female and 7 male subjects) were recruited and were allocated to either tDCS (n = 7) or sham-tDCS (n = 7) group. Their ages ranged from 45 to 55 years. tDCS was administered for 20 min at a 2-mA current intensity, with anodal stimulations were performed at primary motor cortex. The sham-tDCS group was stimulated 30-second current carrying time. Both group interventions were given for 3 days per week, for a period of 3 weeks. Subjective pain was measured using the visual analogue scale (VAS) of 0 to 10. Sensations of cold and warmth, and pain from cold and heat were quantified to examine analgesic effects. The sham-tDCS group showed no statistically significant differences in time. In contrast, tDCS group showed decreased VAS scores and skin temperature (p < 0.05). The threshold temperatures for the sense of cold and pain from cold increased (p < 0.05), and those for the sense of warmth and pain from heat decreased (p < 0.05). Our findings indicate that tDCS improved sensory identification and exerted analgesic effects in the stroke patients with central post-stroke pain.

Owing to the reduced capacity for information processing following a stroke, patients commonly present with difficulties in performing activities of daily living that combine two or more tasks. To address this problem, in the present study, we investigated the effects of neurofeedback training on the abilities of stroke patients to perform dual motor tasks. We randomly assigned 20 patients who had sustained a stroke within the preceding 6 months to either a pseudo-neurofeedback (n = 10) or neurofeedback (n = 10) group. Both groups participated in a general exercise intervention for 8 weeks, three times a week for 30 min per session, under the same conditions. An electrode was secured to the scalp over the region of the central lobe (Cz), in compliance with the International 10-20 System. The electrode was inactive for the pseudotraining group. Participants in the neurofeedback training group received the 30-min neurofeedback training per session for reinforcing the sensorimotor rhythm. Electroencephalographic activity of the two groups was compared. In addition, selected parameters of gait (velocity, cadence [step/min], stance phase [%], and foot pressure) were analyzed using a 10-m walk test, attention-demanding task, walk task and quantified by the SmartStep system. The neurofeedback group showed significantly improved the regulation of the sensorimotor rhythm (p < 0.001) and ability to execute dual tasks (p < 0.01). Significant improvements on selected gait parameters (velocity and cadence; p < 0.05) were also observed. We thus propose that the neurofeedback training is effective to improve the dual-task performance in stroke patients.

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This study aimed to quantify the effects of kinesio taping on delayed onset muscular soreness (DOMS). Thirty-three normal subjects who underwent DOMS resulting from eccentric exercise of the biceps brachii were randomly assigned to group I (sham taping group, n=17) and group II (kinesio taping, n=16). Taping was conducted in the same direction as that of muscle fiber running. Comparison was made after measurement was taken four times (prior to the inducement of soreness, 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours after inducement of soreness). According to comparison of changes in thermal pain threshold, there was swift and significant decrease in cold pain threshold and hot pain threshold of group II compared to group I (p<0.001). The effect of kinesio-taping applied to DOMS was verified using the quantitative evaluation method.

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