Aerobic exercises enhance cognitive functions and brain derived neurotrophic factor in ischemic stroke patients

BACKGROUND: Stroke is a leading cause of functional impairments. High percentage of these patients will experience some degree of cognitive affection, ranging from mild cognitive impairment to dementia. OBJECTIVE: Demonstrate the role of aerobic exercises enhancing cognitive functions and its effect on Brain Derived Neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in post-ischemic stroke patients in the territory of anterior circulation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We included thirty Egyptian ischemic stroke patients in the territory of anterior circulation. They were divided into 2 groups; group 1 (G1) were subjected to physiotherapy program without aerobic exercises and group 2 (G2) were subjected to the same previous program followed by aerobic exercises. Both groups were subjected to pre- and post-treatment Addenbrookes's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACER) and serum level of BDNF. RESULTS: Our results showed a significant improvement in ACER score in G2 compared to G1 post-treatment (p = 0.017). BDNF serum level significantly increased in G2 post-treatment compared to pre-treatment (p = 0.001) and compared to G1 group (p = 0.0458). ACER improvement was positively correlated to increase in serum level of BDNF (r = 0.53, p = 0.044). CONCLUSION: Aerobic exercises improve cognitive functions of ischemic stroke patients. This improvement is related to the increase in serum level of BDNF.