Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability for adults in industrialized societies. Rehabilitation's efforts are tended to avoid long-term impairments, but, actually, the rehabilitative outcomes are still poor. Novel tools based on new technologies have been developed to improve the motor recovery. In this paper, we have taken into account seven promising technologies that can improve rehabilitation of patients with stroke in the early future: (1) robotic devices for lower and upper limb recovery, (2) brain computer interfaces, (3) noninvasive brain stimulators, (4) neuroprostheses, (5) wearable devices for quantitative human movement analysis, (6) virtual reality, and (7) tablet-pc used for neurorehabilitation.

Control of gait is usually altered following stroke, and it may be further compromised by overexertion and fatigue. This study aims to quantitatively assess patients' gait stability during six-minute walking, measuring upper body accelerations of twenty patients with stroke ( 6 4 ± 1 3 years old) and ten age-matched healthy subjects ( 6 3 ± 1 0 years old). Healthy subjects showed a steady gait in terms of speed and accelerations over the six minutes. Conversely, the patients unable to complete the test ( 𝑛 = 8 ) progressively reduced their walking speed (− 2 2 ± 1 1 %, confidence interval CI95%: −13, −29%, 𝑃 = 0 . 0 4 6 ). Patients able to complete the test ( 𝑛 = 1 2 ) did not vary their walking speed over time ( 𝑃 = 0 . 4 9 3 ). However, this ability was not supported by an adequate capacity to maintain their gait stability, as shown by a progressive increase of their upper body accelerations (+ 5 ± 1 1 %, CI95%: −1; +12%, 𝑃 = 0 . 0 1 0 ). Walking endurance and gait stability should be both quantitatively assessed and carefully improved during the rehabilitation of patients with stroke.

Background: To test whether supplementary antioxidants and n–3 fatty acids, alone or in combination, could improve functional status in stroke survivors. Methods: We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in 72 stroke patients (47 males; age 65.3 ± 12.9 years) admitted to a rehabilitation hospital for sequelae of first-ever ischemic stroke, and divided them into 4 subgroups. Group 1 patients received daily oral antioxidants, group 2 received n–3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, group 3 both supplements, and group 4 placebo, all for 12 months. No difference at baseline was observed among groups in neurological severity or in disability. All measures were repeated after 6 and 12 months of treatment. All major clinical events were recorded. Results: At baseline, 25% of the patients had a low plasma vitamin status, and 48.5% was at risk of undernutrition. At the 1-year follow-up, we observed a trend for lower mortality (p = 0.060) in subgroups treated with n–3 fatty acids, but without significant differences in rehabilitation result status among groups. Conclusions: Malnutrition is widely observed in patients admitted to a rehabilitative hospital for stroke rehabilitation, and dietary supplementation, even if not able to improve rehabilitation results, is likely to reduce mortality at the 1-year follow-up.