A frequently encountered exposure profile for hand-arm vibration in contemporary occupational setting comprises workers with a long history of intermittent exposure but without detectable signs of hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). Yet, most of the published studies deal with developed HAVS cases, rarely discussing the biological processes that may be involved in degradation of manual dexterit...

Manual dexterity, a prerogative of primates, is under the control of the corticospinal (CS) tract. Because 90-95% of CS axons decussate, it is assumed that this control is exerted essentially on the contralateral hand. Consistently, unilateral lesion of the hand representation in the motor cortex is followed by a complete loss of dexterity of the contralesional hand. During the months following...

The primary purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two forms of hand heating and to discuss specific trends that relate finger dexterity performance to variables such as finger skin temperature (T(fing)), finger blood flow (Q(fing)), forearm skin temperature (T(fsk)), forearm muscle temperature (Tfmus), mean weighted body skin temperature (Tsk), and change in body heat...

BACKGROUND Impaired manual dexterity is frequent and disabling in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Therefore, convenient, quick, and validated tests for manual dexterity in people with MS are needed. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to validate the Coin Rotation Task (CRT) for examining manual dexterity in people with MS. DESIGN This was a cross-sectional study. METHODS A total of ...

OBJECTIVE To explore circadian variation in pain, stiffness, and manual dexterity in patients with hand osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS Twenty one patients with hand OA, as defined by ACR criteria (17 women, four men, mean age 62.2 years, range 52-74 years) self rated pain and stiffness on separate 10 cm horizontal visual analogue scales and performed bead intubation coordinometry (BIC) six time...

This paper reports results from an experimental pilot study performed to quantify the manual dexterity of older Mexican American adults. The Purdue pegboard test, a two-arm coordination test, and a hand-tool dexterity test were used in this study. To enable cross-sectional comparisons of manual dexterity measures of older Mexican American adults with young Mexican American adults, these tests w...

OBJECTIVE To study hand impairments and their relationship with manual ability in children with cerebral palsy. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. PATIENTS A total of 101 children with cerebral palsy (mean age 10 years, age range 6-15 years) were assessed. METHODS Three motor and 3 sensory impairments were measured on both hands. Motor impairments included grip strength (Jamar dynamometer), g...