Hand Dexterity Impairment in Patients with Cervical Myelopathy: A New Quantitative Assessment Using a Natural Prehension Movement.

Hand Dexterity Impairment in Patients with Cervical Myelopathy: A New Quantitative Assessment Using a Natural Prehension Movement. Behav Neurol. 2018;2018:5138234 Authors: Omori M, Shibuya S, Nakajima T, Endoh T, Suzuki S, Irie S, Ariyasu R, Unenaka S, Sano H, Igarashi K, Ichimura S, Ohki Y Abstract Cervical myelopathy (CM) caused by spinal cord compression can lead to reduced hand dexterity. However, except for the 10 sec grip-and-release test, there is no objective assessment system for hand dexterity in patients with CM. Therefore, we evaluated the hand dexterity impairment of patients with CM objectively by asking them to perform a natural prehension movement. Twenty-three patients with CM and 30 age-matched controls were asked to reach for and grasp a small object with their right thumb and index finger and to subsequently lift and hold it. To examine the effects of tactile afferents from the fingers, objects with surface materials of differing textures (silk, suede, and sandpaper) were used. All patients also underwent the Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) test. Preoperative patients showed significantly greater grip aperture during reach-to-grasp movements and weaker grip force than controls only while attempting to lift the most slippery object (silk). Patients, immediately after surgery, (n = 15) tended to show improvements in the JOA score and in reaction time and movement time with respect to reaching movements. Mult...
Source: Behavioural Neurology - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Behav Neurol Source Type: research