Upper Limb Motor Skills Evaluation in Patients with Early Multiple Sclerosis Using the IDEA System

Upper limb functionality is an integral part of everyday interaction with the environment right from the very first minutes of human life. ϵhis paper investigates the experimental application of the IDEA (Input Device Evaluation Application) system on patients with multiple sclerosis at an early stage and without clinically overt motor deficits, in order to assess their upper limbs´ motor skills. The objective of the current study is to test the sensitivity and reliability of the IDEA system regarding the evaluation of multiple kinetic parameters of upper limbs. 29 patients who were hospitalized in the Demyelinating Diseases Section of Eginition Hospital´s Neurological Clinic and 25 healthy participated in the experiments. Data derived from the experiment are complemented with demographics. The acquired results analysis reveals that the IDEA system sensitivity is high enough to predict the presence of early upper limb multiple sclerosis with a 69.1% success rate.