ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIABILITY IN THE EVALUATION OF HAND SENSIBILITY

Evaluation of hand sensibility using measures of threshold and tactile discrimination are standard assessment methods following nerve injury . Many of the available sensory measures for the quantification of han d sensibility lack verification of intertester reliability. Interteste r reliability of vibration threshold, cutaneous pressure threshold, tw o-point discrimination, object identification, and texture identificat ion was established. The intraclass correlation coefficient ranged fro m 0.96 to 0.99 for all variables except texture identification (r = 0. 77). Comparisons were made between the sensory measures and each funct ional measure. The strongest correlational relationship was between tw o-point identification and object identification. Based on the results of this study, evaluation of hand sensibility may be attained with me asurement of vibration and cutaneous pressure threshold, two-point dis crimination, and object identification.