title: Transcranial direct-current stimulation induced in stroke patients with aphasia: a prospective experimental cohort study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous animal and human studies have shown that transcranial direct current stimulation can induce significant and lasting neuroplasticity and may improve language recovery in patients with aphasia. The objective of the study was to describe a cohort of patients with aphasia after stroke who were treated with transcranial direct current stimulation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective cohort study developed in a public university hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nineteen patients with chronic aphasia received 10 transcranial direct current stimulation sessions lasting 20 minutes each on consecutive days, using a current of 2 mA. The anode was positioned over the supraorbital area and the cathode over the contralateral motor cortex. The following variables were analyzed before and after the 10 neuromodulation sessions: oral language comprehension, copying, dictation, reading, writing, naming and verbal fluency.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no adverse effects in the study. We found statistically significant differences from before to after stimulation in relation to simple sentence comprehension (P = 0.034), naming (P = 0.041) and verbal fluency for names of animals (P = 0.038). Improved scores for performing these three tasks were seen after stimulation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed that excitability of the primary motor cortex through transcranial direct current stimulation was associated with effects on different aspects of language. This can contribute towards future testing in randomized controlled trials.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Santa Casa de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Michele Devido
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Santa Casa de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rubens José
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Gagliardi
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Santa Casa de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Paula Machado Goyano
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Mac-Kay
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paulo Sergio
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Boggio
authors.affiliation: Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lianza
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School, BostonMassachusetts, United States.
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fregni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D013997:Time Factors; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult