Nervous System Commons^™

Clinical Assessment Of The Infant And Child Following Perinatal Brachial Plexus Injury, Susan V. Duff, Carol Dematteo

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction

After perinatal brachial plexus injury (PBPI), clinicians play an important role in injury classification as well as the assessment of recovery and secondary conditions. Early assessment guides the initial plan of care and influences follow-up and long-term outcome.

Purpose

To review methods used to assess, classify and monitor the extent and influence of PBPI with an emphasis on guidelines for clinicians.

Methods

We use The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) model to provide a guide to assessment after PBPI for rehabilitation clinicians.

Discussion

With information gained from targeted assessments, clinicians can design interventions to increase the …

Neural Function, Injury, And Stroke Subtype Predict Treatment Gains After Stroke, Erin Burke Quinlan, Lucy Dodakian, Jill See, Alison Mackenzie, Vu Le, Mike Wojnowicz, Babak Shahbaba, Steven C. Cramer

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Objective

This study was undertaken to better understand the high variability in response seen when treating human subjects with restorative therapies poststroke. Preclinical studies suggest that neural function, neural injury, and clinical status each influence treatment gains; therefore, the current study hypothesized that a multivariate approach incorporating these 3 measures would have the greatest predictive value.

Methods

Patients 3 to 6 months poststroke underwent a battery of assessments before receiving 3 weeks of standardized upper extremity robotic therapy. Candidate predictors included measures of brain injury (including to gray and white matter), neural function (cortical function and cortical connectivity), and clinical …