Exercising isolated and coordinated hand movment impairments using the HandTutor improves functional movement ability

In the April edition of Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation http://bit.ly/iLXFlB Dr. Carpinella and her team from LaRiCE: Gait and Balance Disorders Laboratory, Department of Neurorehabilitation, Milan, Italy compared spatial and temporal aspects of hand movement in 12 healthy volunteers and 14 hemiplegic stroke survivors.
The group found that in comparison with healthy controls revealed that hemiparetic hand movement was impaired not only in joints ROM but also in the temporal aspects of motion: peak velocities were significantly decreased, inter-digit coordination was reduced of more than 50% and inter-joint coordination patterns were highly disrupted.
The HandTutor system trains isolated and coordinated hand movement impairments in a motivating and challenging environment that promotes exercise practice in order to better achieve functional hand movement ability so that the patient can better perform everyday living tasks.