Validity and Inter-rater Reliability for Early Recognition of Spasticity Using the Decision Tree Tool (I-REFER)

Merz Pharmaceuticals

Status: Completed

Conditions: Post-stroke Spasticity

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Industry

Identifiers

NCT06381999

M602011083

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this study is to investigate the validity and Inter-rater reliability for early recognition of spasticity by nurses and physiotherapists using the decision tree tool.

Full description

The Spastic Movement Disorder (SMD) Decision Tree was designed as a tool to aid nurses, therapists and other healthcare professions recognize potential signs of disabling spasticity in the upper limb of post-stroke patients. The present study assesses validity and inter-rater reliability of the SMD Decision Tree comparing nurses and therapists with gold-standard procedure performed by rehabilitation doctors. Agreement was tested for "referral to specialist indicated" and "no referral to specialist indicated".

Enrollment: 73 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Participants with a first sub-acute and chronic infarction of the middle cerebral artery / basal ganglia hemorrhage longer than four weeks after the event
• Between 18-80 years old
• Preserved insight and judgment capacity
• Adequate language and task comprehension, attention span for 15 minutes

Exclusion criteria

• Participants with other neurological disorders
• Participants who received BoNT-A treatment < 3 months before inclusion
• Reduced vigilance and attention span (less than 15 minutes)
• Participants with adult representation
• Participants with severe language impairment / impairment of movement and action sequences