1992 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 131-136
When evaluating the level of impairment of stroke patients, we cannot clarify their problems only by the assessment of motor function. We used the Fugl-Meyer physical performance scale to make a comprehensive assessment of physical function in stroke patients, including ROM, pain, balance, sensory and motor function. We examined 40 stroke patients with hemiplegia (24 cerebral infarction, 12 intracranial hemorrhage, 4 subarachnoid hemorrhage), right side; 18, left side; 22, who had all been rehabilitated for more than three months and had achieved their rehabilitation goals. There were 30 males and 10 females, with an average age of 61.7 years. In 10 patients, two examiner evaluated their physical function at the same time to assess inter-examiner variation.
Using the Fugl-Meyer physical performance scale, we could evaluate patient impairment effectively, and detect the problems in the rehabilitation easily. Such problems were reflected not only in the total score of the test but also by the scoring pattern. Looking at chart, we could understand the patients' problems quite easily.
In the Fugl-Meyer physical performance scale, the method of scoring is so simple that the inter-examiner correlation was high (rs=1.0, p<0.01), and we could finish the evaluation quite rapidly, making it useful for daily clinical practice.
The total score of the Fugl-Meyer physical performance scale correlated well with the Barthel index (rs=0.827, p<0.01). This means that we could predict the patients' disabilities, besides understanding their impairments and rehabilitation problems using Fugl-Meyer physical performance scale.
