Upper Extremity Motor Performance During a Shirt Buttoning Task in Huntington’s Disease

OTJR (Thorofare N J). 2025 Aug 16:15394492251355942. doi: 10.1177/15394492251355942. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Motor impairment in Huntington’s Disease (HD) includes chorea, bradykinesia, dystonia, and rigidity, causing Upper extremity (UE) impairments in daily activities.

OBJECTIVES: Describe motor patterns and analyze execution times for buttoning a shirt in premanifest and manifest-HD versus controls; explore the relationship between clinical assessments and UE motor performance and assess interobserver reliability of the motor pattern coding system.

METHODS: Cross-sectional observational study with 30 manifest-HD, 9 premanifest-HD, and 30 controls from Burgos University Hospital, Spain. Participants buttoned a five-button shirt and time spent and motor patterns were analyzed using Observer-XT-software.

RESULTS: Significant differences were found in movement time and motor patterns between groups. Manifest-HD took nearly twice as long as controls to complete the task. Correlations were found with clinical assessments. Degree of interobserver agreement was excellent.

CONCLUSION: Evaluating motor patterns helps in early detection of motor impairment, monitoring disease progression, and developing rehabilitation programs to maintain and improve UE function.

PMID:40817792 | DOI:10.1177/15394492251355942