• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.48-56
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• 2007

Environmental Enrichment (EE) alone is not capable of enhancing the fine digit and the forelimb functions. Therefore, we applied modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) under the influence of EE to assess its effect on promoting improved forelimb sensorimotor functions. Focal ischemic brain injury was produced in Sprague-Dawley rats (60 rats, $250{\pm}50$ g) through middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Before MCAO induction, all rats were trained in modified limb placing tests and reaching tasks for 1 week. Then they were randomly divided into three groups: Group I: application of standard environment (SE) after MCAO induction (n=20), Group II: application of EE after MCAO induction (n=20), Group III: MCAO+EE, mCIMT and task-oriented training that was initiated at 10th day after MCAO induction (n=20). We also applied mCIMT (between 9 AM and 5 PM/daily) which included restraining the forelimb ipsilateral to the lesion using the 'Jones & Schallert' method. We assessed the change of modified limb placing, single pellet reaching test and the immunoreactivity of BDNF by immunohistochemistry (pre, 1st, 5th, 10th and 20th day). Group I showed no improved outcome, whereas group II and III significantly improved on the use of the forelimb and the immunoreactivity. The qualitative analysis of the skilled reaching test, of group III showed the greatest improvement in the fine digit and the forelimb function. These results suggest that EE combined with mCIMT is more functional in promoting enhanced fine digit and forelimb functional movements.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2013

Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy(CIMT) is considered as one of the most interesting upper extremity rehabilitation in the field of neurorehabilitation. CIMT is an intensive training provided in the affected upper limb for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week for 2 weeks, while unaffected arm is restrained for 90% of waking hours. Recently, instead of CIMT, modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy(mCIMT) has been applied because of the clinical limitations of CIMT. CIMT or mCIMT studies have used various outcome instruments to measure different aspects of upper limb function after intervention. There are various kinds of evaluation tools to measure different aspects of upper limb function after CIMT intervention. It has been proven that Pediatric Motor Activity Log(PMAL), Quality of Upper Extremities Skills Test(QUEST), Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function(MAULF), Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) are effective. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cortical change in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy after CIMT. As a result, use-dependent cortical reorganization was revealed. Also, increased activity of the contralateral motor cortex and decreased activity of the ipsilateral cortex were found. It supports the mechanism of cortical reorganization, the principles of neural plasticity and specifically activation of the contralateral cortex, for improving upper limb function after CIMT.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.245-252
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• 2013

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to verify the effectiveness of modified constraint-induced movement therapy(mCIMT) on upper function and activities of daily living in people with subacute stroke patients. METHODS: Eighteen participants, with subacute stroke that were randomly assigned to either the experimental group(n=9) or the control group(n=9). For subjects from the experimental group modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy was performed. exercise program, the patient trained in affected side upper extremity with restricted non-affected side for 1 hour and using in activity daily living for 4 hours for five times per week, during 4 weeks. For subjects from the control group, conventional upper extremity training was performed. Outcomes such as the box and block test(BBT), Fugl-Meyer motor function assessment(FMA), and modified Barthel index(MBI) were measured before and after training. Between-group and within-group comparisons were analyzed by using Independent t-test and Paired t-test respectively. RESULTS: These finding suggest that experimental group was significant increase in BBT, FMA, MBI(p<.05). In comparison of two group, experimental group was high upper function and activity daily living than control group. CONCLUSION: This study showed experimental group can be used to improve upper function and activity daily living than control group. Thus it indicates that mCIMT will be more improved through the continued upper extremity exercise program.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3023-3029
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the home-based virtual reality (VR) on upper extremity motor function in hemiparetic stroke patients. Two matched subjects with left hemiplegia were volunteered to participate in this study. One subject received the home-based VR whereas the other subject recovered a modified home-based constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT). Both interventions were given for 4 hours x 5 times a week for 4 weeks. Outcome measures included Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), Motor Activity Log (MAL), and Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT). The VR-trained subject showed considerable improvement in all the tested motor functions when compared with the home-based CIMT. Specifically, the FMA measure demonstrated that the VR subject showed 17% enhancement whereas the CIMT subject showed 5% increase. Similarly, Amount of Use (AOU) and Quality of Movement (QOM) of the MAL scores of the VR subject showed 40% and 20% increase whereas the CIMT subject showed 0% and 20% increase, respectively. The WMFT scores of the VR subject and CIMT subject showed 20% increase. Our home-based VR was effective in upper extremity motor recovery of chronic hemiparetic patients even when compared with the well-established CIMT approach in stroke victims.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.7-17
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• 2015

Objective : To investigate the current researches which identify the improvement of bilateral coordination skill of children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy after bimanual intensive training. Methods : We systematically examined papers published in journals from 2004 to 2014, using RISS, Pubmed. Total 6 studies were included in the analyses. Result : All of the selected 6 studies were foreign papers, and the Pedro score was 5 or more. Among various interventions, modified CIMT designs were the most. The primary outcome measure tools are AHA and JTTHF for evaluating bilateral coordination and hand functions, and QUEST, ABILHAND-Kids, COPM, GAS, PEDI, 3-D movement kinematics were used for evaluating various aspects of effectiveness of interventions. Conclusion : Through this systematic review, it is identified that bilateral intensive training provides positive effects to not only hand functions but also bilateral coordination. Furthermore, it also provided supports to participate in ADL requiring bilateral coordination. These results will provides evidence concerning the effectiveness of BIT for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.