Article

Somatosensory loss following stroke is common, with negative
consequences for functional outcome. However, existing studies typically do not
include quantitative measures of discriminative sensibility. The aim of this
study was to quantify the proportion of stroke patients presenting with
discriminative sensory loss of the hand in the post-acute rehabilitation phase.
DESIGN: Prospective cohort study of stroke survivors presenting for
rehabilitation. PATIENTS: Fifty-one consecutive patients admitted to a
metropolitan rehabilitation centre over a continuous 12-month period who met
selection criteria. METHODS: Quantitative measures of touch discrimination and
limb position sense, with high re-test reliability, good discriminative test
properties and objective criteria of abnormality, were employed. Both upper limbs
were tested, in counterbalanced order. RESULTS: Impaired touch discrimination was
identified in the hand contralateral to the lesion in 47% of patients, and in the
ipsilesional hand in 16%. Forty-nine percent showed impaired limb position sense
in the contralesional limb and 20% in the ipsilesional limb. Sixty-seven percent
demonstrated impairment of at least one modality in the contralesional limb.
Ipsilesional impairment was less severe. CONCLUSION: Discriminative sensory
impairment was quantified in the contralesional hand in approximately half of
stroke patients presenting for rehabilitation. A clinically significant number
also experienced impairment in the ipsilesional "unaffected" hand.

Langue : ANGLAIS