Prediction of motor recovery after stroke: advances in biomarkers

Stroke remains a leading cause of adult disability, and the recovery of motor function after stroke is crucial for the patient to regain independence. However, making accurate predictions of a patient's motor recovery and outcome is difficult when based on clinical assessment alone. Clinical assessment of motor impairment within a few days of stroke can help to predict subsequent recovery, while neurophysiological and neuroimaging biomarkers of corticomotor structure and function can help to predict both motor recovery and motor outcome after stroke. The combination of biomarkers can provide clinically useful information when planning the personalised rehabilitation of a patient. These biomarkers can also be used for patient selection and stratification in trials investigating rehabilitation interventions that are initiated early after stroke. Ongoing multicentre trials that incorporate motor biomarkers could help to bring their use into routine clinical practice.