title: A new tactile gnosis instrument in sensibility testing.
abstract: A new quantitative test instrument for the assessment of tactile gnosis--the ability to identify shapes and textures without vision--is introduced. Introductory investigations of validity and reliability are presented. Fifty-four patients (60 hands) with carpal tunnel syndrome, vibration-induced neuropathy, or nerve repair at distal forearm level, and a matched asymptomatic control group were initially examined. After establishing the cut-off limit for normal tactile gnosis, sensitivity and specificity were calculated to determine the discriminative power of the new instrument. A high sensitivity (1.0) of the new shape/texture identification test was found in the group of patients with nerve repair. Given a cut-off limit, the sensitivity was lower in the groups with vibration-induced neuropathy and carpal tunnel syndrome (0.65 and 0.40, respectively), and the specificity of the test was 0.90 to 0.95. In a second step, a group of 52 patients who had had nerve repair at the distal forearm level were examined. Test-retest reliability was good, with a weighted kappa value of 0.79 to 0.81. Good reliability was also shown in the internal consistency of test items, with a Cronbach alpha value of 0.78. These introductory results indicate that the new shape/texture identification test can be useful in the assessment of tactile gnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hand Surgery, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Sweden.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rosén
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lundborg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002349:Carpal Tunnel Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis; D003943:Diagnostic Techniques, Neurological / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D014732:Vibration / Q000009:adverse effects