Women may experience a decline in physical function during menopause. Whether this decline is due to aging or to changes in hormonal status is unknown. The authors performed a longitudinal data analysis on data collected between 1996 and 2001 to determine the effects of menopausal status, age, race, and use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on 3-year changes in grip and pinch strength. Parti...

Numerous neurological diseases are accompanied by atrophy of the intrinsic muscles of the hand. Muscle strength testing of these muscles is frequently used for clinical decision making. Traditionally, these strength measurements have focused on manual muscle testing (MMT) or on grip and pinch strength dynamometry. We have developed a hand-held dynamometer, the Rotterdam Intrinsic Hand Myometer ...

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a neuropathy due to the compression of the median nerve. It is shown that gabapentin in high doses is effective in treatment of CTS patients. In this study we evaluated the efficacy of low doses of gabapentin in treatment of CTS patients. Ninety patients with CTS were randomly assigned to groups A, B and C. Gabapentin was administered to group A with dose of 100 ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the postoperative results of patients with carpal tunnel syndrome by the endoscopic release technique with single portal. METHODS 78 patients (80 wrists) were evaluated preoperatively and postoperatively at 1, 3 and 6 months by the Boston questionnaire, the visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, monofilament test sensitivity, grip strength, lateral pinch, pulp to pulp pin...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between grip and pinch strength and independence in activities of daily living (ADL) in stroke patients. METHODS Medical records of 577 stroke patients from January 2010 to February 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients' grip and pinch strength of both hemiplegic and non-hemiplegic hands and the Korean version of Modified Barthel Index (K-MBI) ...

OBJECTIVE To compare the outcome of muscle strength with manual muscle strength testing grip and pinch strength measurements and a dynamometer which allows for measurements of the intrinsic muscles of the hand in isolation (the Rotterdam Intrinsic Hand Myometer, RIHM). METHODS Thirty-four patients more than 2 years after ulnar and/or median nerve injury. Muscle strength was evaluated using ma...

Although strength is one of the important characteristics of a normal hand, this factor is not given enough attention in reconstructive surgery as compared to other parameters of motion and sensibility. This paper presents the results of a study on strength in functional adaptations of the normal hand. A baseline of normal grip and pinch strength was obtained by testing a group of one hundred h...

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to examine the test-retest reliability of pinch strength testing in elderly subjects with thumb CMC OA. [Subjects and Methods] A total of 27 patients with unilateral right-thumb CMC OA (mean ± SD age: 81.3 ± 4.7 years) were recruited. Each patient performed three pain-free maximal isometric contractions on each hand on two occasions, one week apart. Three dif...