Acute Phase Neuronal Activity for the Prognosis of Stroke Recovery

Strokes causing similar lesions and clinical states can be followed by diverse regains of neurological functions, indicating that the clinical recovery can depend on individual modulating factors. A promising line to disclose these factors, to finally open new therapeutic strategies, is to search for individual indices of recovery prognosis. Here, we pursued on strengthening the value of acute phase electrophysiological biomarkers for poststroke functional recovery in a wide group of patients. We enrolled 120 patients affected by a monohemispheric stroke within the middle cerebral artery territory (70 left and 50 right damages) and collected the NIH stroke scale (NIHSS) score in the acute phase (T0, median 4 days) and chronic follow-up (T1, median 6 months). At T0, we executed electrophysiological noninvasive assessment (19-channel electroencephalography (EEG) or 28 channels per side magnetoencephalography (MEG)) of brain activity at rest by means of band powers in the contra- and ipsilesional hemispheres (CLH, ILH) or the homologous area symmetry (HArS). Low-band (2-6 Hz) HArS entered the regression model for predicting the stabilized clinical state (p < 0.001), with bilateral impairment correlated with a poor outcome. Present data strengthen the fact that low-band impairment of homologous ipsi- and contralesional hemispheric regions in the acute stroke indicate a negative prognosis of clinical recovery.