Zaps to the Spinal Cord Improved Patients' Paralysis After Stroke
A fist that opened and shut. A once-limp arm that moved from her side. Two women whose strokes left them with partial paralysis for years saw life trickle back to their limbs when electric pulses were delivered to the back of their spinal cord as part of a pilot study. Neurologists said the approach, reported Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, could be transformative for stroke survivors, many of whom have some arm impairment after the event.
The pilot study was convincing but it would take much larger studies and a decade or more to know if stroke patients generally could benefit, according to Nick Ward, a neurologist at the University College London who wasn’t involved with the study.
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The study participants were a 31-year-old woman who could move her arm but not her hand, and a 47-year-old woman whose arm was immobilized. The women had thin electrodes surgically implanted into the back of their neck for four weeks. During the experiments, the leads from the electrodes were connected to a device and a computer that delivered a low current in rapid pulses into their spinal cord.
The participants were then given a series of tasks; to move their arms forward to reach a target, to grasp objects and move them around, and to pick up and move a cylinder from one pole to another. Sensors on their arms measured muscle activity. The researchers tracked how successfully the participants were able to execute certain movements—how smoothly they were able to move toward a target, for example, or how strongly they were able to grip.
When the current was turned on on the first day of the trial, Heather Rendulic, 31 at the time, was able to open and close her hand for the first time in nine years, she said. “We were all in tears,” Ms. Rendulic said. “I get chills just thinking about it.” By the end of the study period, Ms. Rendulic was able to complete everyday tasks such as grasping a fork and turning a key in a lock. The enhanced mobility lasted some weeks after her trial ended.
The 47-year-old with more extensive paralysis was able to move her arm and grasp simple objects with her hand, but didn’t achieve the dexterity that Ms. Rendulic did. “We were reactivating a completely paralyzed hand,” said Marco Capogrosso, a neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, who was part of the team that published the study.
https://archive.is/FGhib#selection-387.0-391.195