Upper extremity kinematics: development of a quantitative measure of impairment severity and dissimilarity after stroke.

BACKGROUND: Strokes are a leading cause of disability worldwide, with many survivors experiencing difficulty in recovering upper extremity movement, particularly hand function and grasping ability. There is currently no objective measure of movement quality, and without it, rehabilitative interventions remain at best informed estimations of the underlying neural structures' response to produce movement. In this article, we utilize a novel modification to Procrustean distance to quantify curve dissimilarity and propose the Reach Severity and Dissimilarity Index (RSDI) as an objective measure of motor deficits.

METHODS: All experiments took place at the Medstar National Rehabilitation Hospital; persons with stroke were recruited from the hospital patient population. Using Fugl-Meyer (FM) scores and reach capacities, stroke survivors were placed in either mild or severe impairment groups. Individuals completed sets of reach-to-target tasks to extrapolate kinematic metrics describing motor performance. The Procrustes method of statistical shape analysis was modified to identify reaching sub-movements that were congruous to able-bodied sub-movements.

FINDINGS: Movement initiation proceeds comparably to the reference curve in both two- and three-dimensional representations of mild impairment movement. There were significant effects of the location of congruent segments between subject and reference curves, mean velocities, peak roll angle, and target error. These metrics were used to calculate a preliminary RSDI score with severity and dissimilarity sub-scores, and subjects were reclassified in terms of rehabilitation goals as Speed Emphasis, Strength Emphasis, and Combined Emphasis.

INTERPRETATION: The modified Procrustes method shows promise in identifying disruptions in movement and monitoring recovery without adding to patient or clinician burden. The proposed RSDI score can be adapted and expanded to other functional movements and used as an objective clinical tool. By reducing the impact of stroke on disability, there is a significant potential to improve quality of life through individualized rehabilitation.