Added-value of spasticity reduction to improve arm-hand skill performance in sub-acute stroke patients with a moderately to severely affected arm-hand.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Stroke patients with a moderately to severely affected hand may be impeded in exploiting their full arm-hand training potential during rehabilitation due to spasticity. Reducing early signs of spasticity in sub-acute stroke patients may lead to improvements in arm-hand-function and arm-hand-skill-performance. METHODS: Single-case-experimental-design and meta-analysis. Ten sub-acute stroke patients (Modified-Ashworth-Scale:1 + to 3) participated. Training: 2x6 weeks, using a well-described arm-hand regime (therapy-as-usual). Botulinum-toxin was administered once within 5 weeks after onset of therapy-as-usual. MEASURES: Action-Research-Arm-Test, ABILHAND, Fugl-Meyer-Assessment, grip-strength, Motricity-Index. RESULTS: At group level, after baseline trend correction, adjusting for spontaneous recovery and therapy-as-usual effects, the added-value of botulinum-toxin-A on arm-hand-function and arm-hand-skill-performance was not confirmed. However, non-detrended data revealed significant improvements over time on arm-hand-function and arm-hand-skill-performance level (p≤0.037). Conversely, at individual level, after baseline trend correction, 7/10 patients improved on arm-hand-function: Fugl-Meyer-Assessment (N = 4; p≤0.019), grip-strength (N = 3; p≤0.014), Motricity-Index (N = 4; p≤0.002), whereas 6/10 patients improved on arm-hand-skill-performance: Action-Research-Arm-Test (N = 3; p≤0.042), ABILHAND (N = 5; p≤0.034). CONCLUSION: Application of botulinum-toxin-A may have an added-value in a substantial part of sub-acute stroke patients suffering from spasticity early post-stroke and who, at the point of therapy admission, display no dexterity. It may improve their arm-hand performance when combined with a well- defined therapy-as-usual.

Methodological and interpretive concerns about Beemster et al.'s article 'The interpretation of change score of the pain disability index after vocational rehabilitation is baseline dependent': a letter to the editor.

This is a critique of Beemster et al.'s article 'The interpretation of change score of the pain disability index after vocational rehabilitation is baseline dependent' (2018). The methodological issues in question include the choices of anchor to determine the minimal important change, and the intraclass correlation coefficient on which the calculation of the standard error of measurement was based. We believe these undermine the authors' interpretation.

Changes in actual arm-hand use in stroke patients during and after clinical rehabilitation involving a well-defined arm-hand rehabilitation program: A prospective cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: Improvement of arm-hand function and arm-hand skill performance in stroke patients is reported by many authors. However, therapy content often is poorly described, data on actual arm-hand use are scarce, and, as follow-up time often is very short, little information on patients' mid- and long-term progression is available. Also, outcome data mainly stem from either a general patient group, unstratified for the severity of arm-hand impairment, or a very specific patient group. OBJECTIVES: To investigate to what extent the rate of improvement or deterioration of actual arm-hand use differs between stroke patients with either a severely, moderately or mildly affected arm-hand, during and after rehabilitation involving a well-defined rehabilitation program. METHODS: Design: single-armed prospective cohort study. Outcome measure: affected arm-hand use during daily tasks (accelerometry), expressed as 'Intensity-of arm-hand-use' and 'Duration-of-arm-hand-use' during waking hours. Measurement dates: at admission, clinical discharge and 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-discharge. Statistics: Two-way repeated measures ANOVAs. RESULTS: Seventy-six patients (63 males); mean age: 57.6 years (sd:10.6); post-stroke time: 29.8 days (sd:20.1) participated. Between baseline and 1-year follow-up, Intensity-of-arm-hand-use on the affected side increased by 51%, 114% and 14% (p < .000) in the mildly, moderately and severely affected patients, respectively. Similarly, Duration-of-arm-hand-use increased by 26%, 220% and 161% (p < .000). Regarding bimanual arm-hand use: Intensity-of-arm-hand-use increased by 44%, 74% and 30% (p < .000), whereas Duration-of-arm-hand-use increased by 10%, 22% and 16% (p < .000). CONCLUSION: Stroke survivors with a severely, moderately or mildly affected arm-hand showed different, though (clinically) important, improvements in actual arm-hand use during the rehabilitation phase. Intensity-of-arm-hand-use and Duration-of-arm-hand-use significantly improved in both unimanual and bimanual tasks/skills. These improvements were maintained until at least 1 year post-discharge.

Evaluation of a functional hand orthosis combined with electrical stimulation adjunct to arm-hand rehabilitation in subacute stroke patients with a severely to moderately affected hand function.

PURPOSE: To investigate the usability and effectiveness of a functional hand orthosis, combined with electrical stimulation adjunct to therapy-as-usual, on functional use of the moderately/severely impaired hand in sub-acute stroke patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Single case experiment (A-B-A'-design) involving eight sub-acute stroke patients. The functional hand orthosis and electrical stimulation were used for six weeks, four days/week, 45'/day. OUTCOME MEASURES: Action_Research_Arm_Test, Intrinsic_Motivation_Inventory. RESULTS: At group level, patients improved 19.2 points (median value) (interquartile range: [8.8, 29.5] points) on the Action_Research_Arm_Test (p = 0.001). After correcting for spontaneous recovery and/or therapy-as-usual effects Action_Research_Arm_Test scores still improved significantly (median: 17.2 points; interquartile range: [5.1, 29.2] points) (p = 0.002). At individual level, six patients had improved as to arm-hand skill performance at follow-up (p < = 0.010). In one patient, arm-hand skill performance improvement did not attain statistical significance. In another patient, no arm-hand skill performance improvement was observed. Average Intrinsic_Motivation_Inventory sub-scores were between 4.6 and 6.3 (maximum: 7), except for 'perceived pressure/tension' (3.3). CONCLUSION: Sub-acute stroke patients who display only little/modest improvement on their capacity to perform daily activities, seem to benefit from training with a dynamic arm orthosis in combination with electrical stimulation. Patients' perceived intrinsic motivation and sense of self-regulation was high. Implications for rehabilitation Arm-hand training featuring the dynamic hand orthosis in combination with electrical stimulation shows a shift from no dexterity to dexterity. As to the users' experience regarding the dynamic hand orthosis, patients perceive a high-intrinsic motivation and sense of self-regulation. Combining the orthosis with electrical stimulation creates opportunities for a nonfunctional hand towards task-oriented training.

Psychometric Properties of the Photograph Series of Daily Activities-Short Electronic Version (PHODA-SeV) in Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain.

Background The Photograph Series of Daily Activities-short electronic version (PHODA-SeV) assesses perceived harmfulness of daily activities in patients with low back pain (LBP). Although there is some evidence that the PHODA-SeV is a reliable and valid tool, its psychometric properties have not been fully investigated. Objectives To investigate the test-retest reliability, measurement error, interpretability, construct validity, and internal and external responsiveness of the PHODA-SeV in patients with chronic LBP. Methods Ninety-one patients were included in the analysis for this prospective cohort study. For reliability purposes, the PHODA-SeV was administered twice, with a 1-week interval before beginning treatment. Pain, disability, and measures of pain-related fear (ie, PHODA-SeV, Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire [FABQ], and Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia [TSK]) were collected before and after the 8-week treatment period. Results The PHODA-SeV showed excellent reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient model 2,1 = 0.91), without evidence of ceiling and floor effects. The construct validity analysis demonstrated fair correlations (r = 0.25-0.50) of the PHODA-SeV with the FABQ, but no correlation with the TSK (r<0.25). For internal responsiveness, the PHODA-SeV showed an effect size of 0.87 and a standardized response mean of 0.92, interpreted as a large effect (greater than 0.80). For external responsiveness, the correlations between the PHODA-SeV and changes in the TSK and FABQ were considered low, and the receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed an area under the curve lower than the proposed threshold of 0.70. Conclusion The PHODA-SeV is a reliable tool that can detect changes over time in pain-related fear in patients with chronic LBP undergoing physical therapy treatment. This tool, however, failed to identify those patients who did or did not improve, according to other pain-related fear measures. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2018;48(9):719-727. Epub 23 May 2018. doi:10.2519/jospt.2018.7864.

Changes in arm-hand function and arm-hand skill performance in patients after stroke during and after rehabilitation.

BACKGROUND: Arm-hand rehabilitation programs applied in stroke rehabilitation frequently target specific populations and thus are less applicable in heterogeneous patient populations. Besides, changes in arm-hand function (AHF) and arm-hand skill performance (AHSP) during and after a specific and well-described rehabilitation treatment are often not well evaluated. METHOD: This single-armed prospective cohort study featured three subgroups of stroke patients with either a severely, moderately or mildly impaired AHF. Rehabilitation treatment consisted of a Concise_Arm_and_hand_ Rehabilitation_Approach_in_Stroke (CARAS). Measurements at function and activity level were performed at admission, clinical discharge, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after clinical discharge. RESULTS: Eighty-nine stroke patients (M/F:63/23; mean age:57.6yr (+/-10.6); post-stroke time:29.8 days (+/-20.1)) participated. All patients improved on AHF and arm-hand capacity during and after rehabilitation, except on grip strength in the severely affected subgroup. Largest gains occurred in patients with a moderately affected AHF. As to self-perceived AHSP, on average, all subgroups improved over time. A small percentage of patients declined regarding self-perceived AHSP post-rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS: A majority of stroke patients across the whole arm-hand impairment severity spectrum significantly improved on AHF, arm-hand capacity and self-perceived AHSP. These were maintained up to one year post-rehabilitation. Results may serve as a control condition in future studies.

The PACT trial: PAtient Centered Telerehabilitation: effectiveness of software-supported and traditional mirror therapy in patients with phantom limb pain following lower limb amputation: protocol of a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Non-pharmacological interventions such as mirror therapy are gaining increased recognition in the treatment of phantom limb pain; however, the evidence in people with phantom limb pain is still weak. In addition, compliance to self-delivered exercises is generally low. The aim of this randomised controlled study is to investigate the effectiveness of mirror therapy supported by telerehabilitation on the intensity, duration and frequency of phantom limb pain and limitations in daily activities compared to traditional mirror therapy and care as usual in people following lower limb amputation. METHOD: A three-arm multi-centre randomised controlled trial will be performed. Participants will be randomly assigned to care as usual, traditional mirror therapy or mirror therapy supported by telerehabilitation. During the first 4 weeks, at least 10 individual sessions will take place in every group. After the first 4 weeks, participants will be encouraged to perform self-delivered exercises over a period of 6 weeks. Outcomes will be assessed at 4 and 10 weeks after baseline and at 6 months follow-up. The primary outcome measure is the average intensity of phantom limb pain during the last week. Secondary outcome measures include the different dimensions of phantom limb pain, pain-related limitations in daily activities, global perceived effect, pain-specific self-efficacy, and quality of life. DISCUSSION: Several questions concerning the study design that emerged during the preparation of this trial will be discussed. This will include how these questions were addressed and arguments for the choices that were made.

The usability of a modified Astrand bicycle test to assess the aerobic capacity in patients with musculoskeletal pain and healthy controls.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the usability of a modified Astrand bicycle test in subjects with musculoskeletal pain disorder (MSPD) and healthy controls. METHODS: In a random cross-over design, 31 subjects with a MSPD who have been referred to rehabilitation medicine and 33 healthy subjects matched for age, gender, height and body weight, performed an Astrand bicycle test and a modified test with a time interval of 7 days. Drop-out rates, VO2max values (in mL/kg lean body mass (LBM) min(-1)), intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and critical difference (Bland-Altman plots) for both tests within each group of subjects were compared. RESULTS: The drop-out rate in both tests for the MSPD group was comparable, and mainly caused by pain, fatigue or breathlessness. Compared with the modified version, the Astrand test showed higher VO2max-scores: 4.83 mL/kg LBM min(-1) (9.96%) in the MSPD group and 3.5 mL/kg LBM min(-1) (5.57%) in the healthy group. ICCs were 0.79 and 0.87 and the limits of agreement were 8.5 mL/kg LBM min(-1) (15.9%) and 10.2 mL/kg LBM min(-1) (18.1%), respectively. CONCLUSION: The usability of the modified test is acceptable, as well as in healthy individuals as subjects suffering from MSPD being referred to rehabilitation medicine. However, a slight under estimation of VO2max with the modified test has to be taken into account.