An Integrated Portable Device for the Hand Functional Assessment in the Clinical Practice - Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies - page 76

An Integrated Portable Device for the Hand Functional
Assessment in the Clinical Practice

Danilo Pani 1 , Gianluca Barabino 1 , Alessia Dessı 1 , Matteo Piga 2 ,
Iosto Tradori 2 , Alessandro Mathieu 2 ,andLuigiRaffo 1

1 DIEE - Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
2 Chair of Rheumatology and Rheumatology Unit,
University and AOU of Cagliari, Italy
{ danilo.pani,alessia.dessi,
gianluca.barabino,luigi } @diee.unica.it,
[e-mail], [e-mail],
[e-mail]

Abstract. The functionality of the human hand is of paramount importance for
the daily life activity of a subject. Several chronic diseases can have localized
lesions on the hands, causing disability, as for the Systemic Sclerosis and Rheuma-
toid Arthritis. In these cases the evaluation of the hand functionality is a neces-
sary step for setting up the therapeutic and rehabilitation program. This research
presents a novel device tackling this problem, allowing the evaluation of hand
dexterity and strength on 4 simple rehabilitation exercises. Real-time controlled
by a wirelessly connected PC where a C++ physician graphical interface en-
ables a user-friendly management of the assessment, the device provides hitherto
unavailable measurements. A first evaluation of the device in a real outpatient
rheumatology clinic has been performed and the preliminary results reveal the
potentialities of the approach.

Keywords: Functional Hand Assessment, Biomedical Embedded System, Rheumatic
Diseases, Rehabilitation.

1 Introduction

Human hand is one the principal instruments enabling the interaction of a subject with
the surrounding environment. For such a reason, hand disability is perceived as more
invalidating from a functional perspective compared to other disabilities involving dif-
ferent districts. As a matter of fact, hand disability hampers the execution of normal
daily life activities such as hair brushing, dressing or cooking. Both hand strength and
fine movements are often compromised. From a medical viewpoint, hand functionality
assessment represents a necessary evaluation to be performed both at the first examina-
tion and during the follow-up of the patient in order to quantify the disability level, to
properly set up the pharmacological therapy and to define a personalized rehabilitation
program.