F028 Kinematic analysis of movement patterns during a fine motor task in people with Huntington´s disease

<h3>Background</h3> Motor impairment in Huntington´s Disease (HD) includes chorea, bradykinesia, dystonia and rigidity, causing upper extremity (UE) impairments that make the performance of manipulative, and fine motor activities difficult. As the disease progresses, this symptomatology leads to a loss of independence in activities of daily living (ADLs). <h3>Aim</h3> To evaluate the kinematic movement patterns and the time spent during an activity in people with HD, according to the UE impairment, and to compare with healthy subjects. <h3>Methods</h3> Thirty people with HD (age 59.27 ± 11 years) and twenty-eight healthy subjects (52.64 ± 10.27 years) from the Neurology Department of Burgos University Hospital, were recruited to perform the activity of buttoning a five-button shirt. The time spent during the performance, and the number of motor patterns for dominant and non-dominant hand, were extracted for the whole movement and were analysed with the software Observer-XT (Noldus) figure 1. <h3>Results</h3> Significant statistically differences were found in the average duration of the task, and the number of motor patterns when decomposing them into functional primitives movements (p&lt;0.01). People with HD took nearly twice as long as the control group to complete the task, and more than double of time in ‘transport of the button to pass through the hole’ and ‘transport of the hole to button’. HD patients had more patterns 42 (30–63) than controls 40 (32–50). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Evaluating motor patterns in HD, will help in the early detection of motor impairment, monitor disease progression, and develop specific rehabilitation exercise to maintain and improve UE function.