Clinimetric properties of the action research arm test for the assessment of arm activity in hemiparetic patients after stroke.

: The Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) has been extensively used for patients with stroke in many countries. However, the ARAT has been reported to have ceiling effects. Employing a time evaluation system could be expected to improve the ceiling effects in the ARAT.

Clinimetric properties of the Fugl-Meyer assessment with adapted guidelines for the assessment of arm function in hemiparetic patients after stroke.

Background: Against the background of linguistic and cultural differences, there is a need for translation and adaptation from the English version of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) to Japanese. In addition, there is no study of inter-rater reliability of FMA all domains for affected upper extremities with appropriate sample size based on the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) focusing on non-simultaneous assessment.

Objective: This study aimed (1) to translate the English version of the FMA and its administration/scoring manual; and (2) to investigate the psychometric properties of the Japanese version of the FMA in patients with stroke.

Reliability of remote evaluation for the Fugl-Meyer assessment and the action research arm test in hemiparetic patients after stroke.

Background Blinding for outcome assessors is considered less possible in rehabilitation treatment trials than in pharmacologic trials. This problem can be solved in part by the standardized remote evaluation system, in which researchers video-record patients for centralized assessment using prospectively standardized shooting procedures, and then outside assessors evaluate the videos using prospectively standardized methods. Objective To assess the inter-rater reliability of remote evaluation for the Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA) and the action research arm test (ARAT) in hemiparetic patients after stroke.