Affiliations: [a]
Department of Biomechanics and Technical Aids. National Hospital for Spinal Cord Injury (SESCAM), Finca La Peraleda, Toledo, Spain
| [b]
Department of Special Technologies Applied to Telecommunication. Higher Technical School of Telecommunications Engineering, Technical University of Madrid, University City, Madrid, Spain
| [c] Neural Rehabilitation Group, Cajal Institute, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), C/Doctor Arce, Madrid, Spain
| [d] Occupational Thinks Research Group, Centro Superior de Estudios La Salle (UAM), C/La Salle, Madrid, Spain
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Ana de los Reyes-Guzmán, Department of Biomechanics and Technical Aids, National Hospital for Spinal Cord Injury (SESCAM), Finca la Peraleda s/n, 45071 Toledo, Spain. Tel.: +34 925247779; E-mail: adlos@sescam.jccm.es.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:After cervical Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), upper limb movements made by patients have a lack of smoothness and a hand velocity profile characterized by a high number of velocity peaks. OBJECTIVE:The aim of the present paper is to propose three novel kinematic indices for quantifying movement agility and smoothness, and to analyze their discriminative capability between healthy and pathological people. METHODS:18 people, healthy and two groups of patients with cervical SCI, participated in the study. Kinematic indices in relation to movement agility and smoothness were computed from hand trajectories and velocity profiles during the performance of the ADL of drinking from a glass. RESULTS:The proposed indices discriminated between healthy and SCI people. The results are greater in healthy than SCI people. Both smoothness indices detected significant differences between healthy and both SCI groups. Moreover, the Agility index showed capacity for discriminating between both patients groups. CONCLUSIONS:The main contribution of this research consists on the proposal of kinematic indices from experimental data, whose results are dimensionless and relative to a pattern of healthy subjects. We hope that kinematic indices proposed are a step toward the standardization of the quantitative assessment of movement characteristics and functional impairments.
