Investigation of the Kinematic Upper-Limb Movement Assessment (KUMA): A Pilot Study

Upper limb movement disorders are common after stroke and can severely impact activities of daily living. Available clinical measures of these disorders are subjective and may lack the sensitivity needed to track a patient's progress and to compare different therapies. Kinematic analyses can provide clinicians with more objective measures for evaluating the effects of rehabilitation. We present a novel method to assess the quality of upper limb movement: the Kinematic Upper-limb Movement Assessment (KUMA). This assessment uses motion capture to provide three kinematic measures of upper limb movement: active range of motion, speed, and compensatory trunk movement. The researchers sought to evaluate the ability of the KUMA to distinguish motion in the affected versus unaffected limb. We used the KUMA with three participants with stroke to assess three single-joint movements in: wrist flexion and extension, elbow flexion and extension, and shoulder flexion/extension and abduction/adduction. Participants also completed the Modified Ashworth Scale and the Chedoke-McMaster Stroke Assessment, two clinical measures of functional ability. The KUMA distinguished between affected and unaffected upper limb motion. The KUMA provides clinicians with supplementary objective information for motion characterization that is not available through clinical measures alone. The KUMA can complement existing clinical measures such as the MAS and CMSA and can be helpful for monitoring patient progress.