Does visuospatial neglect contribute to standing balance within the first 12 weeks post-stroke? A prospective longitudinal cohort study.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateAll procedures were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and were approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the University Hospital Antwerp (No. 18/25/305; Belgium trial registration no. B300201837010). Additional approval was obtained from the medical ethics committee of other involved sites. After receiving information, all subjects provided written informed consent for participation. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests."

"Funding The present study was partially funded by the Special Research Fund of the University of Antwerp (DOCPRO no. 40180, research fellow EE) and Research Foundation Flanders (FWO application no. 1S64819N, fellow JS)."

"This longitudinal prospective cohort study is part of a larger research project, entitled TARGET (Temporal Analyses of hemiplegic Gait and standing balance Early post sTroke; for protocol see) []. The protocol is registered online (ClinicalTrials.gov identified: NCT05060458), and the study was conducted in conformity with the STROBE statement. Conclusions: Allocentric and egocentric VSN severity were significantly associated with decreased standing independence, but not impaired postural control or greater asymmetric weight-bearing, in the early subacute post-stroke phase. This may involve traditional VSN measures being not sensitive enough to detect fine-grained VSN deficits due to a ceiling effect between 5 and 8 weeks post-stroke, once the individual regains standing ability. Future studies may require more sensitive VSN measurements to detect such deficits.: Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov. unique identifier NCT05060458."