Stroke is a medical emergency that can creep up on you silently and stealthily. Very often, you may experience subtle symptoms weeks before the incident and not realise what it indicates. Some common symptoms are difficulty in walking, speaking and understanding simple things. Patients often suffer total or partial paralysis after a stroke, and they may gain some semblance of normalcy after months of therapy. But some people go on to enjoy a quick recovery and soon get back to normal activities. Experts have been trying to get to the bottom of this mystery for a long time now. A new study from the University of South Australia says that the capacity of the human brain to recover and rewire itself peaks around two weeks after a stroke and diminishes over time. This is the first study to point this out. For the purpose of this study, researchers followed the recovery of 60 stroke patients for up to a year after their stroke in London and Adelaide. The multi-site study found conclusive evidence that the human brain has a real, but extremely, small window of opportunity to easily repair itself after stroke. Also Read – Novel gene variant may increase your risk of stroke: Study
Physiotherapy more effective in initial days after ischemic stroke
Researchers scanned the brains of survivors as they recovered over 12 months and saw that, in the initial days following an ischemic stroke (caused by a blocked artery to the brain), the brain enjoyed a greater capacity to modify its neural connections and its plasticity is also increased. Physiotherapy, which is an essential part of stroke recovery, is also more effective during this early period. This is because the brain is more responsive to treatment at this time. The journal Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair published this study. According to researchers, many studies on animals also had this same conclusion. But this is the first time that researchers have conclusively demonstrated that this phenomenon exists in humans too. Also Read – ‘Aashiqui’ actor Rahul Roy suffers brain stroke: What can cause a stroke?
First five days crucial after stroke incident
Earlier studies conducted on rats showed that they were able to repair damaged limbs and neural connections more easily within five days of an ischemic stroke than if therapy was delayed until 30 days after they suffered a stroke. The researchers used continuous transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) to repetitively activate different hemispheres of the motor cortex to measure brain plasticity. Also Read – World Stroke Day 2020: Expert explains the link between COVID-19 and stroke and how you can prevent it
Plasticity is strongest around two weeks after stroke
The Adelaide laboratory tested the stroke damaged motor cortex. This is the main area which controls movement. The London laboratory also tested the non-stroke damaged hemisphere, which is again important for recovery. After studying the results of both, they saw that plasticity was strongest around two weeks after stroke in the non-damaged motor cortex. This was actually contrary to what they expected. There was also no change in the damaged hemisphere in response to cTBS. This confirms the importance of initiating therapy as soon as possible after a stroke.
A few other pointers
Researchers also came up with a few other pointers regarding treatment of stroke patients and their recovery prospects.
- Researchers say that current evidence indicates that less than eight minutes of daily therapy is dedicated to upper limb recovery within first four weeks of a stroke.
- Delivering more treatment within this brief window is essential for people to recover after suffering a stroke.
- Identify techniques which prolong or even re-open a period of increased brain plasticity, so that recovery can be maximised.
(With inputs from Agencies)
Published : February 17, 2021 1:20 pm | Updated:February 17, 2021 1:24 pm
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