• Suellen Marinho Andrade, José Jamacy de Almeida Ferreira, Thatiana Silva Rufino, Germana Medeiros, Jader Duarte Brito, Michele Alexandre da Silva, and Raquel de Negreiros Moreira.
• a Cognitive Neuroscience and Behavior Program, Department of Psychology , Federal University of Paraíba , João Pessoa , Brazil.
• Neurol. Res. 2017 Dec 1; 39 (12): 1037-1043.

BackgroundStroke is associated with high rates of falling and severe impairment of lower limb in patients who survive.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of different montages of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on reducing falls and on lower limb function after acute stroke.MethodsSixty participants with acute stroke were randomly allocated into four groups with different electrode's setups: anodal, cathodal, bilateral and sham tDCS. Each patient received 10 stimulation sessions (five consecutive days for two weeks). Four Square Step Test, Occurrence of Falling Index, Overall Stability Index, Falls Efficacy Scale - International, Berg Balance Scale, Six-minute walk test and Sit to Stand Test were measured at baseline, post-treatment, and at one- and three-month follow-up.ResultsAt baseline, no differences between the groups in terms of clinical and demographic characteristics were found. However, after treatment and during follow up, all the groups that received active stimulation showed greater reduction in the risk of falls and improved performance of the lower limb's motor skills when compared to the sham group. No significant differences were found between the three types of active montages in relation to the risk of falling. In relation to lower limb function, bilateral stimulation provided a higher improvement when compared to anodal and cathodal tDCS.ConclusionsThis is the first trial with different setups of tDCS on acute stroke patients. tDCS presents as an effective treatment strategy in reducing the risk of falls and improving lower limb function after a stroke. ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT 02422173).

23 keywords...

hide…