Introduction of the Purdue Pegboard Test for fine assessment of severity of cervical myelopathy before and after surgery.
Keisuke Irie, Hirokatsu Iseki, Kazuhiro Okamoto and 2 others
PMID 32184535WHAT IT FOUND
The STEF predicted chopstick use better than the Purdue Pegboard Test in cervical myelopathy.
The PPT assembly task still correlated with clinician-rated severity, so it may add bilateral hand information.
Key findings
01The PPT assembly task showed moderate correlation with the JOA score (r=0.53) and the DASH score (r=-0.62).
02The STEF predicted chopstick use with an area under the curve of 0.798 at a cut-off of 90, while the PPT predicted it with 0.656 at a cut-off of 11.
03The PPT right-hand and both-hand tasks showed low correlation with the JOA score (r=0.37 and r=0.40).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only 34 patients were studied at one centre, so selection bias is possible. Follow-up was only 1 month, while functional recovery may take about 6 months. The STEF sensitivity and specificity for chopstick use were described as insufficient, and the STEF can have a ceiling effect in mild cases. The PPT discrimination score for chopstick use was 0.656, below the 0.75 value the paper describes as useful. The supplied text gives preoperative correlations and chopstick discrimination values, but no numeric postoperative change results.
Declared interests
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (Grant no. 19K19832) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the Purdue Pegboard Test is better than the STEF for cervical myelopathy. The STEF predicted chopstick use with an area under the curve of 0.798, while the PPT predicted it with 0.656, and the authors found the STEF was more sensitive to postoperative JOA upper limb changes.