Muscle trajectories in acute stroke

Muscle trajectories and their relationship to recovery in acute stroke patients. 

Regaining the ability to walk is one of the major rehabilitation goals of stroke survivors. However, the best treatment strategy to tackle this goal is rather unclear since every stroke patient responds differently on treatment. Studying this heterogeneous recovery process in stroke survivors could help deepen the understanding of underlying mechanisms and create new insights for future treatment strategies. 

Only recently, biomarkers became a focus in the evaluation and treatment of individuals following a stroke. Moreover, the time-related trajectories of these biomarkers, rather than measuring them at a single time point, may help to unravel the black-box phenomenon of stroke recovery.

In this project, we want to explore the time-related trajectories of stroke-induced muscle alterations and inflammation in the acute stage post-stroke. Furthermore, our goal is to gain insight in the predictive value of these novel biomarkers towards gait recovery.