Stroke, Measurement and Rehabilitation

Angular measurement of the upper and lower limbs using an inertial sensor.

Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) of pain intensity: A continuous scale comprised of a horizontal line with 10 cm in length without numeric value was used. The patients were instructed to make a mark with a pen at any point on the line between 2 verbal descriptors, one for each symptom extreme ["No pain" (0) and "as bad as it could be" or "worst imaginable pain]. A ruler was used to measure distance to determine a score.

Mini-Mental State Examination: It comprises 11-question to evaluated 5 areas of cognitive function: orientation, registration, attention and calculation, memory, and language. MMSE scores range between 0 and 30, with higher scores reflecting better performance

Hand dynamometer: Grip strength of the paretic limb was measured by the hand dynamometer with patients sitting with the shoulder in a neutral position and the elbow flexed at 90°. The average force of three measurements was calculated

Box and block test: Gross manual dexterity of the paretic member was measured by the box and block test. The patient must attempt to transport the maximum number of blocks from one compartment of a box to another within 1 minute by grasping each block and transporting it over the partition.

Timed Up and Go (TUG) test: Patients were required to stand up from a chair, walk 3m, turn around, return to the chair, and sit down. The time taken to complete this task was measured with a stopwatch.

Ashworth Scale: It is 6-point rating scale for measuring muscle tone, with ratings from 0 ("no increase in tone") to 4 ("limb rigid in flexion or extension").

Functional Independence Measure Scale™ (FIM): It is an instrument which comprises 18 subscales measuring a variety of physical and cognitive functions. Each subscale is scored from 1 (total assist) to 7 (complete independence), resulting in a total score that ranges from 18 to 126.

World Health Organization Quality of Life-Abbreviated form (WHOQOL-BREF): a 26-item questionnaire in which items are rated on a 5-point scale. It evaluates 4 domains related to physical factors, psychological factors, social relationships, and environmental context. Higher scores indicate a better quality of life.

Subjective Well-Being Scale (EBES): It is composed of 62 items related to three factors that evaluate subjective well-being: positive affect; negative affection and satisfaction with life versus life dissatisfaction. The first 47 items measure positive and negative affect using a 5-point scale with ratings from "not at all" to "to a great extent". The last 22 items measure life satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) using a 5-point scale with ratings from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree".

Cutaneous temperatures were measurements at 2 regions of the head [parietal (with hair) and frontal (without hair) regions] and 6 points on upper and lower limbs.