Abstract
Kinematic characteristics of reaching movements of the dominant arm were assessed in 51 sitting preterm children who were aged 2–11 y and had cerebral palsy (CP), including 33 with spastic hemiplegia and 18 with bilateral CP (Bi-CP). Reference data of 29 typically developing children were present. The results indicated that the quality of reaching movements from the dominant arm of children with CP was significantly worse than that of typically developing children. This held true in particular for the children with Bi-CP. For example, reaching movements of children with CP took more time and consisted less often of one movement unit. The quality of reaching was related to the severity of lesion present on the neonatal ultrasound scan of the brain, the severity of motor disorder, the degree of spasticity, and the ability to perform activities of daily life. The last indicates that movements of the dominant arm in children with spastic hemiplegia and Bi-CP deserve clinical attention.
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Abbreviations
- Bi-CP:
-
bilateral cerebral palsy
- CP:
-
cerebral palsy
- GMFCS:
-
Gross Motor Function Classification System
- MU:
-
movement unit
- PEDI:
-
Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory
- PVL:
-
periventricular leukomalacia
- SH:
-
spastic hemiplegia
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Acknowledgements
We thank Prof. Dr. O.F. Brouwer for critical and valuable remarks on a previous draft of this manuscript. L.A. van Eykern, A.A. Kingma-Balkema, and Dr. J.J.A.M. Schaap are kindly acknowledged for skillful technical assistance.
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This study was supported by the Johanna KinderFonds (grant 19990021), the Dr. W.M. Phelps-Stiching voor Spastici (grant 99.058), and the Gratama Stichting/Groninger Universiteits Fonds.
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van der Heide, J., Fock, J., Otten, B. et al. Kinematic Characteristics of Reaching Movements in Preterm Children with Cerebral Palsy. Pediatr Res 57, 883–889 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1203/01.PDR.0000157771.20683.14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/01.PDR.0000157771.20683.14
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