Biomechanical Analysis of Handwriting Movements for Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

• Main Authors: Hsiao-Man Hsu, 許筱曼
• Other Authors: Li-Chieh Kuo
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/42093820646539130757

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 職能治療學系碩博士班 === 97 === Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome suffer from neurological symptoms which are caused by the compression on median nerve. Some of the symptoms, like pain and numbness, may increase the difficulty to execute activities of daily living. Handwriting task is one of the activities which are easily influenced by the sensory disturbance, because people need lots of sensory feedback to regulate strength and movement constantly when doing handwriting task. However, there are few apparatus for analyzing the biomechanical aspect of handwriting. Thus, this study develops an apparatus to measure the strength of pen grip and to investigate the handwriting-related kinetics. By analyzing the data from CTS and normal group, we could probe into how this disease influencing handwriting movements. We used a concrete calibration technology and statistical analysis to examine the test-retest reliability and criterion-related validity of the apparatus. This research recruited 15 CTS patients and 14 control subjects which are age and sex matched as the experimental and control group, respectively. The CTS group embraced test twice, before and after operation, and the normal group proceeded only once to record their handwriting performance via the pen apparatus and motion capture system. Each complete test contained filling investigation form, clinical evaluation, and writing task. After data collecting, the recorded information was translated into several meaningful parameters, and then suitable statistical analyses were used to examine whether significance difference between groups existence or not. The results show good test-retest reliability and criterion-related validity of the apparatus. For those defined parameters, safety margin, modulation index, and force ratio, some of the experimental results show significant difference between groups. According to the results, the CTS patients with worse ability of pen-tip force and finger force regulation were shown. This discovery might provide valuable information to take part in the clinical intervention of occupational therapy in the development of new evaluation and treatment strategies. More handwriting biomechanics- related topic will also be suggested studying using this apparatus with good reliability and validity in the further works.