Project Type
independent
Project Start Date
10/01/2006
Project End Date
09/30/2011
Target Population(s)
Cervical and high thoracic spinal cord injury

Evaluation of arm and hand function in tetraplegia suffers from lack of reliable and sensitive assessment instruments. Such an instrument is important to evaluate effectiveness of clinical trials of neuroregeneration in SCI, and in detecting changes in function as a result of tendon transfers and neuroprosthesis. The Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center of the Delaware Valley (RSCICDV) has already developed a questionnaire of upper extremity function, called the Capabilities of Upper Extremity questionnaire (CUE-Q), which has shown promise as a reliable and sensitive measure of arm and hand function. The specific aim of this study is to develop an observational standardized test of upper limb function in tetraplegia called the Capabilities of the Upper Extremity Test (CUE-T).