ABSTRACT
New treatments proposed for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) have their efficacy evaluated by lower limb tests. However, upper limb function tests evaluate both ambulatory (A) and non-ambulatory (NA) people. Thus, this work aimed to compare the upper limb function of patients A and NA with DMD and to correlate disease staging and upper limb function. This is a cross-sectional study in which patients were divided into A and NA according to the Vignos scale. Subsequently, the upper limb function was evaluated by the performance of upper limb (PUL) scale. The independent t-test, chi-square test, Mann-Whitney test, linear regression and Spearman’s correlation test were performed by SPSS, version 22. The research dealt with 51 patients, 20 A and 31 NA. There were differences between the groups reference age (p=0.001), body mass index (BMI) (p=0.016), schooling (p=0.011), Vignos score (p<0.001) and upper limb function (p<0.001). The linear regression analysis showed that whether the patient was A or NA influenced the upper limb function in 18 points on the PUL scale. There was a strong correlation between disease staging and upper limb function (r2=−0.769, p<0.001). The functional condition of the upper limb depends on whether the patient is A or NA, being worse function in NA patients. We concluded that the upper limb function has a strong correlation with the staging of the disease.
Keywords:
Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne; Upper Extremity; Physical therapy