Intensity or Duration: That Is the Main Question of the Exercise Training Management in Stroke-Induced Neurological Deficit - A Systematic and Meta-analysis Study

The neurological assessment plays a crucial role in evaluating stroke patients and is a skill that has been practiced by physicians for a long time, and further refined by practitioners. The purpose of the current study was to systematically review and synthesize the evidence-based neurological assessment of the different methods of treadmill-related training protocols in stroke patients.

Evidence Acquisition:

 In this study, the appropriate studies were documented (N = 1270) using PubMed as the sole electronic database. Moreover, subgroup studies were provided based on training intensity and duration, categorized as low intensity-low duration, low intensity-high duration, high intensity-low duration, and high intensity-high duration. Training intensities were standardized to meters per second (m/s), and the training duration was calculated in terms of minutes per session, the number of sessions per week, and the total number of training weeks, which were then converted into minutes. The assessment of neurological recovery following stroke was conducted using standard neurological assessment scales.

This meta-analysis in humans found a notably positive standardized mean difference in protocols with high intensity and high duration (1.792; 95% CI = 0.566 to 3.02).

In conclusion, the current meta-analysis suggests that practitioners using the high intensity-high duration protocol should regularly monitor the neurological outcomes, as they may be negatively impacted by the intensity and duration of the protocol.