Recovery and Prediction of Bimanual Hand Use After Stroke

OBJECTIVE: To determine similarities and differences in key predictors of recovery of bimanual hand use and unimanual motor impairment after stroke. METHOD: In this prospective longitudinal study, 89 patients with first-ever stroke with arm paresis were assessed at 3 weeks and 3 and 6 months after stroke onset. Bimanual activity performance was assessed with the Adult Assisting Hand Assessment Stroke (Ad-AHA), and unimanual motor impairment was assessed with the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA). Candidate predictors included shoulder abduction and finger extension measured by the corresponding FMA items (FMA-SAFE; range 0–4) and sensory and cognitive impairment. MRI was used to measure weighted corticospinal tract lesion load (wCST-LL) and resting-state interhemispheric functional connectivity (FC). RESULTS: Initial Ad-AHA performance was poor but improved over time in all (mild-severe) impairment subgroups. Ad-AHA correlated with FMA at each time point (r > 0.88, p < 0.001), and recovery trajectories were similar. In patients with moderate to severe initial FMA, FMA-SAFE score was the strongest predictor of Ad-AHA outcome (R(2) = 0.81) and degree of recovery (R(2) = 0.64). Two-point discrimination explained additional variance in Ad-AHA outcome (R(2) = 0.05). Repeated analyses without FMA-SAFE score identified wCST-LL and cognitive impairment as additional predictors. A wCST-LL >5.5 cm(3) strongly predicted low to minimal FMA/Ad-AHA recovery (≤10 and 20 points respectively, specificity = 0.91). FC explained some additional variance to FMA-SAFE score only in unimanual recovery. CONCLUSION: Although recovery of bimanual activity depends on the extent of corticospinal tract injury and initial sensory and cognitive impairments, FMA-SAFE score captures most of the variance explained by these mechanisms. FMA-SAFE score, a straightforward clinical measure, strongly predicts bimanual recovery. CLINICALTRIALS.GOV IDENTIFIER: NCT02878304. CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class I evidence that the FMA-SAFE score predicts bimanual recovery after stroke.