Bedside Measures of the Human Movement: Clinical and Instrumental Measures of Force, Tonus and Dexterity

To acquire knowledge of the clinical and instrumental methods for measuring muscle strength and dexterity, muscle tone and proprioception in patients with nervous system disorders and disorders of the locomotor apparatus. The course will emphasize the relevance of measures obtained from the patient's physical examination, like the manual muscle testing of strength and tonus. Further, the course aims to detail the metrological features of these measures in terms of validity and precision (reliability) and describe the statistics implied in assessing these two fundamental characteristics of any measurement. Eventually, the validity and precision of the instrumental measures and those from the physical examination will be compared.