Physiotherapy as a Complimentary Treatment in Reducing Viral-Load, Complications, Death, Expedite Discharge and Improve Quality of Life, Exercise Endurance and Capacity in Stroke Survivors With CoViD-19: A Clinical-Controlled Study

Background: Coronavirus (CoViD-19) positive stroke survivors (SSv) with comorbidities faces possibility for mortality. Study reports success of physiotherapy in CoViD-19 positive SSv with multiple comorbidities. Methods: This clinical controlled study involve a minimum of 30 SSv and 30 age and sex-matched non-stroke individuals with multiple comorbidities with CoViD-19 status confirmed using Real-Time Quantitative-Polymerase Chain Reaction. The Cycle Threshold (CT) and nucleic acid content in the test sample (NA) will be recorded from the virology test results. Their exercise endurance, exercise capacities and quality of life will be assessed using 3-minutes' walk test and 3-meters test and Stroke Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire. Measurements will be taken at every three days intervals from admission to discharge from hospital-isolation. They will receive their normal treatments for CoViD-19 in addition to daily Physiotherapy for the SSv delivered through E-Platform. the Zoom and the WhatsApp video platforms will be used for the interactions between the physiotherapists and the participants. A pre-tested exercise protocol for stroke patients developed by the Stroke and Nervous System Disorders research group of the University of Lagos, Nigeria will be used for the E-exercises. The exercise package will be loaded into the phones of the participants at hospital admission. The Physiotherapists will lead in the exercises through video interaction will the participants watches the video programme. Their risks for respiratory complications (RC), ventilation (RV) and death (RD) will be analysed. Data will be analysed using independent t-test, Analysis of Co-Variance, and multivariate retrogression, survival analyses, Friedman Analysis of Variance and MannWithney U test (95% Confident Interval). Anticipated Outcomes: It is anticipated that the outcome of this study will provide evidence for inclusion of Physiotherapy in the acute management of individuals tested po