Technology-aided assessment of functionally relevant sensorimotor impairments in arm and hand of post-stroke individuals
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(2020) 17:128
METHODOLOGY
Open Access
Technology-aided assessment of functionally relevant sensorimotor impairments in arm and hand of post-stroke individuals Christoph M. Kanzler1* and Olivier Lambercy1
, Anne Schwarz2,3,4 , Jeremia P. O. Held2 , Andreas R. Luft2,3 , Roger Gassert2,3
Abstract Background: Assessing arm and hand sensorimotor impairments that are functionally relevant is essential to optimize the impact of neurorehabilitation interventions. Technology-aided assessments should provide a sensitive and objective characterization of upper limb impairments, but often provide arm weight support and neglect the importance of the hand, thereby questioning their functional relevance. The Virtual Peg Insertion Test (VPIT) addresses these limitations by quantifying arm and hand movements as well as grip forces during a goal-directed manipulation task requiring active lifting of the upper limb against gravity. The aim of this work was to evaluate the ability of the VPIT metrics to characterize arm and hand sensorimotor impairments that are relevant for performing functional tasks. Methods: Arm and hand sensorimotor impairments were systematically characterized in 30 chronic stroke patients using conventional clinical scales and the VPIT. For the latter, ten previously established kinematic and kinetic core metrics were extracted. The validity and robustness of these metrics was investigated by analyzing their clinimetric properties (test-retest reliability, measurement error, learning effects, concurrent validity). Results: Twenty-three of the participants, the ones with mild to moderate sensorimotor impairments and without strong cognitive deficits, were able to successfully complete the VPIT protocol (duration 16.6 min). The VPIT metrics detected impairments in arm and hand in 90.0% of the participants, and were sensitive to increased muscle tone and pathological joint coupling. Most importantly, significant moderate to high correlations between conventional scales of activity limitations and the VPIT metrics were found, thereby indicating their functional relevance when grasping and transporting objects, and when performing dexterous finger manipulations. Lastly, the robustness of three out of the ten VPIT core metrics in post-stroke individuals was confirmed. Conclusions: This work provides evidence that technology-aided assessments requiring goal-directed manipulations without arm weight support can provide an objective, robust, and clinically feasible way to assess (Continued on next page)
*Correspondence: [email protected] Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Full list of author information is available at the end of the article 1
© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you
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