Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

New therapy helps to improve stereoscopic vision in stroke patients

You can see how long before your doctor recommends this for you. I'm betting never.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=141013&CultureCode=en
Humans view the world through two eyes, but it is our brain that combines the images from each eye to form a single composite picture. If this function becomes damaged, impaired sight can be the result. Such loss of visual function can be observed in patients who have suffered a stroke or traumatic brain injury or when the oxygen supply to the brain has been reduced (cerebral hypoxia). Those affected by this condition experience blurred vision or can start to see double after only a short period of visual effort. Other symptoms can include increased fatigue or headaches. It is been suggested that these symptoms arise because the brain is unable to maintain its ability to fuse the separate images from each eye into a single composite image over a longer period. Experts refer to this phenomenon as binocular fusion dysfunction.
‘As a result, these patients have significantly reduced visual endurance,’ explains Katharina Schaadt, a graduate psychology student at Saarland University. ‘This often severely limits a patient’s ability to work or go about their daily life.’ Working at a computer screen or reading the newspaper can be very challenging. As binocular fusion is a fundamental requirement for achieving a three-dimensional impression of depth, those affected also frequently suffer from partial or complete stereo blindness. ‘Patients suffering from stereo blindness are no longer able to perceive spatial depth correctly,’ says Schaadt. ‘In extreme cases, the world appears as flat as a two-dimensional picture. Such patients may well have difficulties in reaching for an object, climbing stairs or walking on uneven ground.’
Although about 20% of stroke patients and up to 50% of patients with brain trauma injuries suffer from these types of functional impairments, there is still no effective therapy. Researchers at Saarland University working with Anna Katharina Schaadt and departmental head Professor Georg Kerkhoff have now developed a novel therapeutic approach and have examined its efficacy in two studies. ‘Test subjects underwent a six week training program in which both eyes were exercised equally,’ explains Schaadt. The aim was to train binocular fusion and thus improve three-dimensional vision. Participants in the study were presented with two images with a slight lateral offset between them. By using what are known as convergent eye movements, patients try to fuse the two images to a single image. This involves directing the eyes inward towards the nose while always keeping the images in the field of view. With time, the two images fuse to form a single image that exhibits stereoscopic depth, i.e. the patient has re-established binocular single vision.

More at link.

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