Changes in cerebellar activation following onabotulinumtoxin A injections for spasticity after chronic stroke: A pilot fMRI study.

Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2015 Jul 31;

Authors: Chang CL, Weber DJ, Munin MC

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of reducing spasticity via Obtx-A injection on cerebellar activation after chronic stroke during unilateral gripping.
DESIGN: Pre-post, case series.
SETTING: Outpatient spasticity clinic.
PARTICIPANTS: Four individuals with chronic spasticity.
INTERVENTIONS: Upper limb Obtx-A injections OUTCOME MEASURES: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure changes in cerebellar activation before and after upper limb Obtx-A injections. During fMRI testing, participants performed the same motor task before and after injection, which is 15% and 30% of maximum voluntary isometric gripping measured before Obtx-A injection.
RESULTS: After Obtx-A injections, cerebellar activation increased bilaterally during gripping with the paretic hand and during rest. During both pre- and post-injection scans, the paretic hand showed larger cerebellar activation during gripping compared to the non-paretic hand. Cerebellar activation during gripping with the non-paretic hand did not change significantly after Obtx-A injections.
CONCLUSIONS: Reducing spasticity via Obtx-A injections may increase cerebellar activation both during gripping tasks with the paretic hand and during rest. To our knowledge, this is the first study that examines changes in cerebellar activation after spasticity treatment with Obtx-A.

PMID: 26239302 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]