A growing body of evidence are available regarding the effectiveness of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in patients with chronic hand motor impairment as a stroke consequence.~This study investigated the combined effects of anodal tDCS and intensive motor training (MT) vs. sham stimulation with MT (control intervention) on objective evaluation of fine and gross motor hand function using simulated activities of daily living (Jebsen-Taylor hand function test), grip strength, motor performance and functional use of the affected arm in this population of patients.~Patients with chronic hand motor deficits after stroke (> 12 months) are randomly assigned to active stimulation or a control intervention arm in a double-blinded, sham-controlled, parallel design. Each group received intensive MT for 45 min/day, 5 days/week, for 2 weeks, which was preceded by 20 minutes of 2 milliampere of anodal tDCS over the ipsilesional M1 vs. sham tDCS.~Outcome measures are tested at baseline (T0), and after the intervention Day 1 (T1), after stimulation protocol completion Day 10 (T2) and 30 days later (T3).
This study investigated the combined effects of anodal tDCS and intensive motor training (MT) vs. sham stimulation with MT (control intervention) on grip strength, motor performance and functional use of the affected arm in population of chronic stroke patients.