Effects of Accelerated Skill Acquisition Programme With Segmental Vibration on Upper Limb in Stroke.

Stroke is a major health burden and the leading cause of serious long-term disability around the world. One of the most cumbersome deficits after a unilateral stroke is impairment in the contralateral upper limb. Segmental vibration is an intervention that incorporates sensory stimulation to improve motor cortical excitability. This study aims to investigate the influence of a 15-minute SMV application along with accelerated skill acquisition programme (ASAP) on spasticity, motor function, manual dexterity, and somatosensory function of the Upper Limb in Subacute stroke. This study will be a randomized clinical trial conducted in the physiotherapy department of DHQ Hospital Gujranwala, Gondal Hospital, and Dayan Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation over 10 months. Using the Online Randomizer tool, 60 stroke patients will be recruited through a non-probability convenience sampling technique and randomly divided into two equal groups, Group A and Group B. Group A will receive ASAP with high-frequency segmental vibration(100Hz) on the extensor muscles while Group B, will receive accelerated skill acquisition programme (ASAP) with only. The Assessment tools are the Fugl-Meyer Assessment Scale (for upper limb function), Wolf Motor Functional Test(for motor function), Modified Ashworth Scale(for spasticity), Maximal Hand Grip Strength(for manual dexterity), Nottingham Sensory Assessment(for somatosensory function). Outcome measures will be assessed at baseline,4th week,8th week, and 12th week. Follow-up will be performed in the 16th week. Data analysis will be done by SPSS version 28.0. Two-way Mixed ANOVA, repeated measure ANOVA, and one-way ANOVA will be used in case of normal distribution of data. The Friedman, Kruskal Wallis, and Wilcoxon sign rank tests will be used for non-normal data.