Improvement of the stroke aphasia─Our knowledge using the repetitive transcranial magnetism stimulation─

Abstract

  Many poststroke patients suffer functional limitation which is associated with diminished health-related quality of life. We performed an inpatient combination protocol of these two modalities, both low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and intensive occupational therapy (OT) for the treatment of the affected upper limb as NEURO^(R) (NovEl intervention Using Repetitive TMS and intensive Occupational therapy) . Also, we do NEURO^(R) (NovEl Intervention Using Repetitive TMS and Intensive One-to-one Training: NEURO^(R)) for aphasia, higher brain dysfunction and others. NEURO^(R) is safe and feasible. NEURO^(R) significantly improves motor function of the affected upper limb in poststroke hemiparetic patients, the recovery mechanism became clear. In case of aphasia, the scalp area for rTMS was selected based on the findings of fMRI with language tasks and the type of aphasia. The fMRI with aphasic type-based therapeutic rTMS/intensive ST for chronic aphasia seems feasible and a potentially useful neurorehabilitative protocol. The combination of pharmacotherapy and application of newly developed neuroimaging techniques may provide additional important information for improving neurorehabilitative intervention for aphasia.