Normative Data for an Instrumental Assessment of the Upper-Limb Functionality

Figure 2

Kinematic model. Upper extremity model with 5 degrees of freedom: arm angle flexion (AAF), arm angle abduction (AAA), arm internal-external rotation (AIER), elbow angle (EA), and elbow pronation/supination angle (EPSA). As dependent measures, only AAF and EA are considered, although also AAA and AIER can be estimated using the marker placement reported in Figure 1. The coordinate axes are those defining the principal body planes, that is, -sagittal, -frontal, and -transverse. By contrast, the displacement between the markers and joint centres (, , and ) and EPSA cannot be estimated with the model used. Therefore, an analysis of the accuracy was performed and the results are reported in Section 3.5.