Kinematic Analysis of Upper Limbs and Trunk Movement During Bilateral Movement After Stroke

Experimental setup. (A) Subject’s initial position and (B) the 3 directions of the task. For the 45° directions, the plastic strips were turned until the stopper marking the 45° position was reached. Abbreviations: −45NP/D, 45° nonparetic direction (for the subjects with hemiparesis) and 45° dominant direction (for the control subjects); +45P/ND, 45° paretic direction (for the subjects with hemiparesis) and 45° nondominant direction (for the control subjects). Adapted from Messier et al.²⁰ Reprinted with permission.

The shoulder abduction and flexion provide an example of the measurement calculated as a function of the orientation of the proximal segment. The projection (a) of the arm on the frontal plane of the trunk gives the abduction angle and that on the sagittal plane (b) gives the flexion.

Illustrations of between-groups results for the unilateral task in the (A) anterior direction, (B) 45° nonparetic direction, and (C) 45° paretic direction. Legend: —, paretic side for the subjects with hemiparesis and nondominant side for the control subjects.

Illustrations of between-groups results for the bilateral task in the (A) anterior direction, (B) 45° nonparetic direction, and (C) 45° paretic direction. Legend: —, paretic side for the subjects with hemiparesis and nondominant side for the control subjects.

(A) Unilateral and (B) bilateral tasks: angular changes of the nonparetic upper limb for the subjects with hemiparesis and of the dominant upper limb for the control subjects and angular changes of the trunk of both groups for each direction. Abbreviations: D, dominant side (for the control subjects); 45NP/D, 45° nonparetic direction/dominant direction; 45P/ND, 45° paretic direction/nondominant direction; NP, nonparetic side (for the subjects with hemiparesis). *P=.02, ^†P=.03, ^‡P=.04, ^§P=.01 (Kruskal-Wallis test).