The contribution of kinematics in the assessment of upper limb motor recovery early after stroke.

Background: Kinematic assessment of upper limb motor recovery after stroke may be related to clinical scores while being more sensitive and reliable than clinical evaluation alone.

Objective: To identify the potential of kinematics in assessing upper limb recovery early poststroke.

Methods: Thirteen patients were included within 1 month poststroke and evaluated once a week for 6 weeks and at 3 months with (a) the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) and (b) kinematic analysis of reach-to-grasp movements.

Motor recovery of the ipsilesional upper limb in subacute stroke.

Objective: To investigate the time-related changes in motor performance of the ipsilesional upper limb in subacute poststroke patients by using clinical and kinematic assessments.

Design: Observational, longitudinal, prospective, monocentric study.

Setting: Physical medicine and rehabilitation department.

Somatosensory-related limitations for bimanual coordination after stroke.

Background: Bimanual coordinated movements may be impaired after stroke, so an assessment of causes is necessary to optimize rehabilitation strategies.

Objective: We assessed the role of afference-based sources of coordination, including phase entrainment and error correction based on visual and somatosensory feedback.

Methods: In all, 10 persons with unilateral chronic stroke and 8 age-matched controls participated in a kinesthetic tracking protocol, in which the hemiparetic upper limb was passively driven by the machine.

Changes in bimanual coordination during the first 6 weeks after moderate hemiparetic stroke.

Background: Better understanding of how bimanual coordination changes over the first weeks of recovery after stroke is required to address the potential utility for bimanual rehabilitation. Three-dimensional kinematic analysis can provide quantitative assessment of unimanual and bimanual movements.

Objective: To assess the natural evolution of reaching kinematics during standard poststroke rehabilitation, focusing on bimanual coordination.

People post-stroke perceive movement fluency in virtual reality.

We investigated the visual perception of biological movement by people post-stroke, using minimal kinematic displays. A group of twenty patients and a group of twelve age-matched healthy controls were asked to judge movement fluency. The movements to judge were either displayed as an end-point dot or as a stick-figure of the arm and trunk.