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Updated: Oct 18, 2025
Determining the Functional Status of the Corticospinal Tract Within One Week of Stroke
Published on: February 22, 2020
Clinical interpretation and cutoff scores for manual ability measured by the ABILHAND questionnaire in people with
Elisabeth Ekstrand1,2, Margit Alt Murphy3,4, Katharina S Sunnerhagen3,5
1Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Background:
The ABILHAND questionnaire is recommended to assess perceived manual ability after stroke; however, more knowledge on interpretability is needed to improve the clinical applicability.
Objectives:
To determine clinically meaningful cutoff scores for different levels of perceived manual ability, assessed by ABILHAND, corresponding to established observed and perceived upper extremity assessments post stroke.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study, part of the Stroke Arm Longitudinal Study (SALGOT) at the University of Gothenburg, included 80 participants with upper extremity impairments after stroke. The self-reported upper extremity functioning was assessed with ABILHAND and Stroke Impact Scale Hand (SIS Hand), and the observed functioning was assessed by Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Upper Extremity (FMA-UE) and Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) at 3 months after stroke. Receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, and specificity analyses were used to determine the cutoffs.
Results:
The overall discriminating accuracy was excellent (AUC > 0.90) for most of the cutoffs and sensitivity and specificity values ranged from 0.73 to 1.0. The ABILHAND cutoff score 1.78 discriminated well between low and good functioning resulting in a 95% match with SIS Hand and 87.5% match with ARAT and FMA-UE.
Conclusions:
The determined cutoff scores of the ABILHAND, validated through established upper extremity assessments, will provide a useful tool to clinicians when interpreting the logit scores and when selecting individualized treatment options. ABILHAND matched well with self-reported SIS Hand, but discrepancies found with observed scales implies that self-perceived assessments should be complemented with observed assessments.
