Predictive Ability of Fahrenheit, a Hand Motion Recording System for Assessing Hand Motor Function in Patients with Hemiplegia Post-Cerebrovascular Disease—A Pilot Study

Abstract

The Brunnstrom recovery stage (BRS) assessment is a frequently used clinical instrument, but does not allow temporal or spatial analysis owing to its use of binary assessments. We developed a kinematic analysis system (Fahrenheit) that employs three-dimensional motor analysis using the Leap Motion Controller as an infrared camera to assess hand motor function in patients post- cerebrovascular disease (CeVD)/stroke, according to the BRS assessment criteria. We investigated whether Fahrenheit could predict the outcome of the BRS assessment of hand motor function in post-CeVD patients with hemiplegia. Thirty-two inpatients with CeVD were recruited in this pilot study. Participants’ hand motor function after CeVD was assessed through their performance of nine tasks according to the BRS assessment. We constructed a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve based on each participants’ performance, and compared the results of the BRS assessment and computed the area under the curve (AUC) for each ROC curve. All task values showed significant differences between sufficient and insufficient movements. AUC analyses showed that the nine tasks assessed using Fahrenheit had high predictability (all AUC values ≥ 0.7), which were comparable to those of the therapists’ assessment. Measurements with Fahrenheit showed high predictability with respect to the BRS criteria, indicating that Fahrenheit may have clinical application for assessing post-CeVD finger movement and motor functions. Further verification involving more patients is required to ensure that Fahrenheit becomes a more reliable evaluation tool.