Affiliations: [a] Biomedical Engineering and Telemedicine Centre (GBT), ETSI Telecomunicación, Center for Biomedical Technology (CTB), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain
| [b] Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Zaragoza, Spain
| [c] Institut Guttmann Neurorehabilitation Hospital, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Badalona, Spain
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Mailin Adriana Villán-Villán, Biomedical Engineering and Telemedicine Centre
(GBT), ETSI Telecomunicación, Center for Biomedical Technology (CTB), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
(UPM), Avenida Complutense 30, Madrid, Spain. Tel.: +34 915495700; E-mail: mvillan@gbt.tfo.upm.es..
Abstract: BACKGROUND:The increasing number of patients with acquired brain injury and the current subjectivity of the conventional upper extremity (UE) assessment tests require new objective assessment techniques. OBJECTIVE:This research proposes a novel objective motor assessment (OMA) methodology based on the Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA). The goals are to automatically calculate the objective scores (OSs) of FMA-UE movements (as well as a global OS) and to interpret the estimated OSs. METHODS:Fifteen patients participated in the study. The OMA algorithm was designed to detect small-scale variations in UE movements. The OSs for 14 FMA-UE movements and the global OSs were automatically calculated using the algorithm and evaluated by 2 therapists. The interpretation of the global OSs was performed at 3 levels: by item, movement and globally. RESULTS:The global OSs calculated by our algorithm had a significant correlation with the therapists’ scores (0.783 and 0.938, p < 0.01). All OSs for each movement were correlated with the scores given by the therapists. The correlation coefficient can reach values as high as 0.981 (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS:We provide a new objective assessment tool for therapists to help them improve the diagnostic accuracy and to achieve a more personalized and potentially effective physical rehabilitation of brain injury patients.
