Please select the eligibility criteria that correspond to the clinical trial below.
Title: Evaluation of Robotic Arm Rehabilitation in Stroke Patients
Brief Summary: The purpose of this study is to compare 2 training programs using robotic exercise devices to supervised arm exercises in stroke patients with chronic stable deficits.


Options:
A: Inclusion Criteria:

* first acute event of cerebrovascular stroke
* unilateral paresis,
* ability to understand and follow simple instructions,
* ability to remain in a sitting posture, even through seat belts for trunk fixation.

Exclusion Criteria:

* bilateral impairment,
* severe sensory deficits in the paretic upper limb,
* cognitive impairment or behavioral dysfunction that would influence the ability to comprehend or perform the experiment,
* refusal or inability to provide informed consent
* other current severe medical problems.
B: Inclusion Criteria:

* Over 21 years of age, weakness due to a recent stroke or other brain injury, and receiving rehabilitation. Subjects are inpatients at one of the participating VA hospitals.

Exclusion Criteria:

Unable to follow instructions; medically unstable.
C: Inclusion criteria Patients will not be excluded because of somatosensory deficits or the nature of previous physical interventions. We will not randomize patients on the basis of side of stroke or hand dominance but will undertake secondary data analyses examining these variables. In past applications of one form of RTP, CI therapy, to chronic stroke patients in the laboratories of Taub and Miltner, there were no significant differences in treatment effects for patients with right and left-sided strokes. In previous evaluations of CI therapy, Taub did not find any difference in outcomes among the small percentage of patients with pre-morbid left dominance. Therefore, there is no reason to exclude these patients from participation. We believe that the motivation to improve use of an affected pre-stroke non-dominant upper extremity is sufficiently strong to support profound improvement from treating that limb as well as from treating the dominant limb. Distributions of dominance and hand preference have been acquired from patients meeting eligibility criteria in 1998 at several sites for determining participation of sites for the EXCITE trial and side of cerebral pathology showed remarkably equal left-right distribution.

Exclusion criteria

1. a score of less than 24 on the Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination or a score of 36 or below on the Token Test of the Multilingual Aphasia Examination
2. a first stroke less than 3 months or more than 9 months prior to the initiation of therapy
3. less than 18 years old
4. clinical judgment of excessive frailty or lack of stamina (e.g., cannot attend to instructions, stay awake, engage in functional activities, etc.)
5. serious uncontrolled medical conditions
6. excessive pain in any joint of the more affected extremity that could limit ability to cooperate with the intervention, as judged by the examining clinician
7. passive range of motion less than 45 degrees for: abduction, flexion or external rotation at shoulder, or pronation of forearm; or greater than 30 degrees flexion contracture at any finger joint (patients who pass the motor criteria specified above do not tend to have the type of pain or limitation of movement that would exclude them from treatment)
8. unable to stand independently for 2 min., transfer independently to and from the toilet or perform sit-to-stand
9. current participation in other pharmacological or physical intervention studies, or have received injections of anti-spasticity drugs into upper extremity musculature within the past 3 months, or wish to have drugs injected in the foreseeable future
10. receiving any anti-spasticity drugs orally at the time of expected participation
11. received phenol injections less than 12 months prior to receiving therapy
12. contemplating a move from proximity to the treatment site in less than 1 year from the randomization date. Prospective patients who qualify but who have profound postural instability will undergo the intervention while walking with contact guarding or, when feasible, using their leg(s) and more involved arm to propel a wheelchair.
D: Inclusion Criteria:

* Subjects must have a clinically, defined, unilateral, hemiparetic stroke with radiologic exclusion of other diagnoses
* Stroke onset greater than six months before randomization for ischemic stroke patients and one year before randomization for hemorrhagic stroke patients
* A grade 3 or lower in Manual Muscle Test in the hemiparetic elbow flexion and shoulder abduction

Exclusion Criteria:

* Subjects unable to give informed consent
* Serious complicating medical illness
* Contracture or orthopedic problems limiting the range of joint movement in the study arm
* Visual loss
* Stroke occurred within 6 months for ischemic stroke patients, one year for hemorrhagic patients
* Botox treatment within 3 months of enrollment

Answer: D