[R161]Rehabilitation For Stroke Patients

Moleac, a bio pharmacy company, is bringing NeuroAid to western medicine internationally and ensures it meets western medicine standards to attend to the needs of stroke sufferers: NeuroAid supports them to achieve better neurological and functional recovery.

Researchers from the University's School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences and the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) have developed a technology to help stroke patients to re-learn movement, and local people are being invited to participate in trials.

Stroke is the number one cause of serious adult disability in the United States. Stroke is currently the third leading cause of death in the United States. Stroke ranks as the third leading cause of death in the world and is a main reason for disability and dependency in the elderly. Stroke has a greater disability impact than any other medical condition.

Stroke-related deficits are severe in approximately one third of the survivors and moderate or mild in the other two thirds. Stroke patients have been shown to achieve significantly lower maximal workloads and heart rate and blood pressure responses than control subjects during progressive exercise testing to volitional fatigue.

Stroke patients usually experience the most dramatic recovery in the first 30 days but may continue to improve more gradually for months. The first of Moleac's offering is Neuroaid, the first drug that can help patients recover faster from their stroke disabilities.

Patients suffer physical and other problems, such as loss of memory, vision, spatial awareness and mobility through paralysis. Patients may find that they can no longer understand written words, that they cannot pronounce words anymore, or that they can speak volumes of words but fail to convey the meanings they intend.

Patients in the study were offered 10 weeks the therapy, in which restraint of the unaffected arm forced them to use their affected arm for everyday tasks. Patients then engaged in daily repetitive task and behavioral shaping sessions, which included training in tasks such as opening a lock, turning a doorknob, or pouring a drink.

Patients using simulator training were more likely both to pass the driver's test and to retain the skill level achieved in training. NeuroAid has shown efficacy for patients who suffered a stroke in the past 6 months and have resulting loss of motor function or independence.

New methods for speeding recovery will have an enormous impact for the individuals involved and for the costs of providing long-term therapy, support and care. Now MIT pioneers in the field of robotic therapy are hoping a robotic gym full of machines targeted at different parts of the body will significantly improve stroke patients' movement in arms, wrists, hands, legs and ankles.

In the first clinical trial, the researchers found that stroke patients who used the machine four to five hours a week improved further and faster, as measured by increased function of the impaired limb, than a second group of patients that did not receive robot-assisted therapy. "We're looking for efficiency because in the long -- it might be possible to do some of the therapy with a robot instead of having to ask somebody to drive in to the therapy center.

To regain speech and movement after a stroke, 150,000 Chinese have used a medicine containing extracts from leeches and scorpions, says the product's manufacturer, Moleac, which is based in Singapore. David Picard, CEO of Moleac, the Singapore/Biopolis-based global biopharmaceutical company that develops and markets NeuroAid(TM) outside of China, said: ''We are delighted at the interest (TM) has generatedin the medical community worldwide.