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Upper Extremity Motor Performance During a Shirt Buttoning Task in Huntington's Disease
Lucía Simón-Vicente1, César Cuesta-García2, Sara Calvo3,4
1Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain.
Background:
Motor impairment in Huntington's Disease (HD) includes chorea, bradykinesia, dystonia, and rigidity, causing Upper extremity (UE) impairments in daily activities.
Objectives:
Describe motor patterns and analyze execution times for buttoning a shirt in premanifest and manifest-HD versus controls; explore the relationship between clinical assessments and UE motor performance and assess interobserver reliability of the motor pattern coding system.
Methods:
Cross-sectional observational study with 30 manifest-HD, 9 premanifest-HD, and 30 controls from Burgos University Hospital, Spain. Participants buttoned a five-button shirt and time spent and motor patterns were analyzed using Observer-XT-software.
Results:
Significant differences were found in movement time and motor patterns between groups. Manifest-HD took nearly twice as long as controls to complete the task. Correlations were found with clinical assessments. Degree of interobserver agreement was excellent.
Conclusion:
Evaluating motor patterns helps in early detection of motor impairment, monitoring disease progression, and developing rehabilitation programs to maintain and improve UE function.
