Recovery of kinematic arm function in well-performing people with subacute stroke: a longitudinal cohort study.

The study selected only people with mild to moderate stroke and high FMA-UE scores, so it does not show what happens in more impaired arm function. The included patients were younger and had less severe strokes than excluded patients, so results may not apply to older or more severely affected patients. The kinematic findings are specific to a drinking task, so they may not generalize to all reaching or hand activities. Patients were tested multiple times, so a learning effect cannot be ruled out. The 12-month dropout rate was 16%, which may affect how broadly the results apply. Some kinematic variables had outliers, which may have influenced the results. The hand function questionnaire had a ceiling effect, so it may not have detected small changes in the best-performing patients.

The study lists several Swedish research councils and charitable foundations as funders. No author conflict-of-interest disclosure is given in the supplied text.

Do not conclude that these patients had fully recovered arm movement control. Movement time and smoothness looked similar to healthy controls, but elbow extension speed and compensatory trunk or shoulder movement were still different.