Quantifying paretic upper limb impairment in stroke and cerebral palsy

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: Recruiting

Sex: Not specified

Target Recruitment: 115

Inclusion Criteria

- *18 years;
- Minimal passive range of motion (PROM) in shoulder joint: 0-80° abduction, 0-45° anterior flexion.
- At least some volitional control of elbow flexion and extension;
- Having given written informed consent prior to undertaking any study-related procedures.;In addition, the following inclusion criteria apply for stroke patients:
- Patients need to have an unilateral upper extremity impairment;
- Chronic (> 6 months) patients.
In addition, the following inclusion criteria apply for adults with CP:
- Adults with CP need to have an upper extremity impairment;
- Spastic unilateral or spastic bilateral adults with CP.

Exclusion Criteria

- Inability to understand instructions (for example due to intellectual impairment);
- History of pre-existing neuromusculoskeletal disorders that would influence the upper extremity function (e.g., presence of a prosthetics shoulder, other neurological condition which might affect upper extremity function, surgery/specific treatment * 6 months);
- Damage skin of the arm that interferes with the measurement set-up and/or has negative influence for the participants;
- Hemiplegic shoulder pain;
- Patients with fixed contractures in the upper extremity that hinder the experimental setup.
- Intellectual impairment, or psychiatric disorder that hinders understanding measurement instructions. ;In addition, the following exclusion criteria apply for adults with CP:
Adults with very severe motor disorders: a level V on the gross motor function classification system (GMFCS) and/or a level V on the manual ability classification system (MACS).

Study & Design

Study Type: Observational non invasive

Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>The main study parameters are muscle weakness, spasticity, abnormal synergy and<br /><br>changed viscoelastic properties of the upper extremity, as measured with the<br /><br>Shoulder-Elbow Perturbation (SEP).</p><br>

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>The secondary study parameters are spasticity and abnormal synergy as measured<br /><br>with clinical assessment tools.<br /><br><br /><br>Spasticity:<br /><br>In stroke patients and adults with CP: Tardieu scale.<br /><br>Synergy:<br /><br>In stroke patients: Brunnström Fugl-Meyer (BFM) of the upper extremity;<br /><br>In adults with CP: Test of Arm Selective Control (TASC). </p><br>