The study evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of a non-immersive virtual reality (VR) system on upper extremity (UE) recovery in ischaemic stroke patients in comparison to a conventional physiotherapy.

An open-label, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial randomly assigned the participants to two groups, VR intervention or conventional physiotherapy.

Two tertiary stroke care centres in South India participated in the study.

Sixty first-ever ischaemic stroke patients (1–6 months of stroke onset) having spasticity grades of 1 or 1+ as per Modified Ashworth scale and Brunnstrom recovery stages of 3, 4 or 5 in the UE were included in the intention-to-treat analysis.

High-intensity non-immersive VR-based comprehensive rehabilitation gaming system with a duration of 12 weeks (3 days/week) was compared with equally intensive conventional physiotherapy.

The feasibility outcome was the compliance with the treatment. The primary efficacy outcome was the improvement in the motor function assessed by the Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA) and Wolf motor function test (WMFT). The secondary outcomes included the performance in activities of daily living by the Barthel index (BI) and the quality of life by the 36-item short form health survey (SF-36).

The treatment compliance was similar in two groups (p=0.19). Both groups improved in motor performance, activities of daily living and quality of life. However, there were no significant differences in the FMA (p=0.58), WMFT (functional ability scale, p=0.33; performance time, p=0.44), BI (p=0.84) and SF-36 (physical, p=0.87; mental, p=0.99) scores between the groups.

The non-immersive VR system was feasible, effective and safe; however, it was not found to be superior to conventional physiotherapy. The trial was stopped early and did not reach its proposed sample size and hence, the findings are to be interpreted cautiously.

Clinical trial registry India: CTRI/2021/11/038339 (https://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/pmaindet2.php?EncHid=NTc1OTI=&Enc=&userName=CTRI/2021/11/038339).

Rare diseases (RD) are collectively common and often genetic. Families value and can benefit from precise molecular diagnoses. Prolonged diagnostic odysseys exacerbate the burden of RD on patients, families and the healthcare system. Genome sequencing (GS) is a near-comprehensive test for genetic RD, but existing care models—where consultation with a medical geneticist is a prerequisite for testing—predate GS and may limit access or delay diagnosis. Evidence is needed to guide the optimal positioning of GS in care pathways. While initiating GS prior to geneticist consultation has been trialled in acute care settings, there are no data to inform the utility of this approach in outpatient care, where most patients with RD seek genetics services. We aim to evaluate the diagnostic yield, time to diagnosis, clinical and personal utility and incremental cost-effectiveness of GS initiated at the time of referral triage (pre-geneticist evaluation) compared with standard of care.

200 paediatric patients referred to one of two large genetics centres in Ontario, Canada, for suspected genetic RD will be randomised into a 1:1 ratio to the intervention (GS first) or standard of care (geneticist first) arm. An unblinded, permuted block randomisation design will be used, stratified within each recruitment site by phenotype and prior genetic testing. The primary outcome measure is time to genetic diagnosis or to cessation of active follow-up. Survival analysis will be used to analyse time-to-event data. Additional measures will include patient-reported and family-reported measures of satisfaction, understanding and perceived test utility, clinician-reported measures of perceived test utility and management impact, and healthcare system utilisation and costs.

This study was approved by Clinical Trials Ontario. Results will be disseminated, at minimum, via peer-reviewed journals, professional conferences and internal reports to funding bodies. Efforts will be made to share aggregated study results with participants and their families.

NCT06935019.