Detecting Movement Changes in Children with Hemiparesis after Upper Limb Therapies: A Responsiveness Analysis of a 3D Bimanual Protocol

Abstract

The “Be an Airplane Pilot” (BE API) protocol was developed to evaluate upper limb (UL) kinematics in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (uCP) during bimanual tasks. The aim of this study was to investigate the responsiveness of this protocol to changes in kinematics and movement quality after UL therapies, using individual and group analyses, and to analyse the relationships between kinematic and functional changes in these children. Twenty children with uCP (5–15 years old) either participated in bimanual intensive therapy or received UL botulinum toxin injections. All the children performed the BE API protocol and functional assessments (Assisting Hand Assessment [AHA]) before and after the interventions. The individual analyses found kinematic changes in 100% of the children after therapy. The group analysis found significantly higher trunk and shoulder deviations after the intensive therapy. No significant changes were found for smoothness or trajectory straightness. The changes in the kinematic deviations were moderately correlated with the changes in the AHA scores. This study confirmed the responsiveness of the BE API protocol to change after therapy; therefore, the protocol is now fully validated and can be implemented in clinical practice. Its use should help in the accurate identification of impairments so that individualized treatments can be proposed.

Keywords

• children
• cerebral palsy
• motion analysis
• upper limb
• bimanual
• kinematics