http://nnr.sagepub.com/content/29/4/341?etoc
- 1Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- 2University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Penelope A. McNulty, Neuroscience Research Australia, Barker Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2031, Australia. Email: p.mcnulty@neura.edu.au
Abstract
Background. Functional ability is
regularly monitored poststroke to assess improvement and the efficacy of
clinical trials. The balance
between implementation times and sensitivity has
led to multidomain tools that aim to assess upper-limb function
comprehensively.
Objective. This study implemented 3 common multidomain tools to investigate their suitability across a broad spectrum of movement ability
after stroke.
Methods. Forty-nine
hemiparetic patients (18 females), aged 22 to 83 years and 24.7 ± 39.2
months poststroke, were assessed before
and after a 14-day upper-limb rehabilitation
program of Wii-based Movement Therapy. Assessments included the
upper-limb motor
subscale of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (F-M), the
Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), and the Motor Assessment Scale (MAS)
upper-limb
sections 6 to 8. The MAS was analyzed both with and
without the hierarchical system. Patients were stratified with low,
moderate,
or high motor-function.
Results. Upper-limb function improved significantly for the pooled cohort for all assessments (P
< .001), although ceiling effects were evident for the F-M, floor
effects for the WMFT, and both floor and ceiling effects
for MAS. When analyzed by stratified subgroup these
improvements were significant for all groups with the F-M, for the
moderate
and high motor-function groups with both the WMFT
and the MAS scored without hierarchical system, but only for the high
motor-function
group with the hierarchically scored MAS.
Conclusion.
These results suggest that no single test is suitable for measuring
function and improvement across the spectrum of poststroke
upper-limb dysfunction and that assessment tool
selection should be based on the level of residual motor-function of
individual
patients.
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