title: Fugl-Meyer assessment of sensorimotor function after stroke: standardized training procedure for clinical practice and clinical trials.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Outcome measurement fidelity within and between sites of multi-site, randomized, clinical trials is an essential element to meaningful trial outcomes. As important are the methods developed for randomized, clinical trials that can have practical utility for clinical practice. A standardized measurement method and rater training program were developed for the total Fugl-Meyer motor and sensory assessments; inter-rater reliability was used to test program effectiveness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifteen individuals with hemiparetic stroke, 17 trained physical therapists across 5 regional clinical sites, and an expert rater participated in an inter-rater reliability study of the Fugl-Meyer motor (total, upper extremity, and lower extremity subscores) and sensory (total, light touch, and proprioception subscores) assessments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intra-rater reliability for the expert rater was high for the motor and sensory scores (range, 0.95-1.0). Inter-rater agreement (intraclass correlation coefficient, 2, 1) between expert and therapist raters was high for the motor scores (total, 0.98; upper extremity, 0.99; lower extremity, 0.91) and sensory scores (total, 0.93; light touch, 0.87; proprioception, 0.96).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Standardized measurement methods and training of therapist assessors for a multi-site, rehabilitation, randomized, clinical trial resulted in high inter-rater reliability for the Fugl-Meyer motor and sensory assessments. Poststroke sensorimotor impairment severity can be reliably assessed for clinical practice or rehabilitation research with these methods.
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. kasulliv@usc.edu
authors.forename: Katherine J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: Julie K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Tilson
authors.forename: Steven Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Cen
authors.forename: Dorian K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hershberg
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Correa
authors.forename: Joann
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gallichio
authors.forename: Molly
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McLeod
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Samuel S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Pamela W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Duncan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities / Q000592:standards*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome