Normative kinematics of reaching and dexterity tasks: moving towards a quantitative baseline for Functional Capacity Evaluations (FCEs)

Figures & data

Table 1. Order of task and subtask performance.

Task	Subtask
Repetitive reaching	Right to Left, Right Hand
	Right to Left, Left Hand
	Left to Right, Right Hand
	Left to Right, Left Hand
Fingertip dexterity	Right Hand
	Left Hand
	Both Hands
	Assembly
Hand and forearm dexterity	Placing
	Turning

Table 2. Anatomical landmark locations of individual markers.

Marker	Description
SS	Suprasternal notch
C7	Spinous process of the 7th cervical vertebra
XP	Xiphoid process
T8	Spinous process of the 8th thoracic vertebra
AR*	Acromion
ME*	Medial epicondyle of the humerus
LE*	Lateral epicondyle of the humerus
RS*	Radial styloid
US*	Ulnar styloid
MC2*	2nd metacarpal phalangeal joint
MC5*	5th metacarpal phalangeal joint
IC*	Iliac crest
GT*	Greater trochanter of the femur

^* Indicates bilateral placement.

Figure 1. HFD placing task setup.

Note: For this subtask, only the cycles involving movement of the blocks in the row circled were used for analysis.

Table 3. Mean capacity scores for males and females during each FCE subtask.

Task (performance measure)	Males [mean (SD)]	Females [mean (SD)]
Repetitive reaching, Right to Left, Right Hand (s)	56.31 (7.47)	54.61 (9.76)
Repetitive reaching, Right to Left, Left Hand (s)	57.31 (9.65)	54.47 (10.76)
Repetitive reaching, Left to Right, Right Hand (s)	56.18 (9.01)	52.62 (10.14)
Repetitive reaching, Left to Right, Left Hand (s)	57.94 (9.07)	54.29 (11.27)
Fingertip dexterity, Right Hand (# of pins)	17.22 (1.62)	18.16 (1.86)
Fingertip dexterity, Left Hand (# of pins)	16.29 (1.54)	17.1 (2.32)
Fingertip dexterity, Both Hands (# of pins)	13.53 (1.33)	14.28 (1.65)
Fingertip dexterity, assembly (# of pins)	35.77 (6.47)	39.2 (4.39)
Hand and forearm dexterity, placing (s)	197.13 (21.23)	192.47(20.65)
Hand and forearm dexterity, turning (s)	148.67 (17.46)	148.37 (19.46)

Figure 2. Kinematic profiles with mean (bold line) +/− one standard deviation (gray shaded area) during the right to left, right hand and left to right, right-hand RR subtasks: torso + left/− right axial rotation (top), right humeral abduction (second), right humeral flexion (third), and right elbow flexion (bottom).

Notes: In the same direction/hand sub tasks, humeral abduction peaks during marble pick up and humeral flexion peaks during marble drop off but during the opposite direction/hand the pattern is reverse. The pattern of motion for the elbow was the same for all subtasks.

Figure 3. Kinematic profiles with mean (bold line) +/− one standard deviation (gray shaded area) during the right hand, both hands, and assembly FD subtasks: torso + left/−right axial rotation (top), right humeral flexion (second), right humeral + internal/− external axial rotation (third), and right elbow flexion (bottom).

Notes: Flexion decreases slightly during pin placement, while internal rotation increases during pin placement for all subtasks. The pattern of motion for the elbow was the same for all subtasks.

Figure 4. Mean humeral flexion angle and mean humeral axial rotation angle of the right arm with +/− one standard deviation during the HFD placing task.

Note: Both mean flexion and mean internal rotation increase from the first third to the last third.

Figure 5. Kinematic profiles with mean (bold line) +/− one standard deviation (gray shaded area) during hand and forearm turning subtask: torso + left/− right axial rotation (top), right humeral abduction (second), right humeral flexion (third), right humeral + internal/− external axial rotation (bottom).

Note: Peaks in torso and humeral axial rotation occur when the hands are at the edges of the board.

Figure 6. Individual raw mean angle curves overlaying the normative profiles of torso axial rotation in the RR task (a) and elbow flexion during the FD (b) tasks with the mean of the profiles in bold and +/− one standard deviation shaded in gray.

Figure 7. Hypothetical comparison of pathological torso axial rotation (dotted line) to the normative axial rotation profile generated in the current study during the RR task with the mean of the profiles in bold and +/− one standard deviation shaded in gray.