Objective assessment of motor dysfunction in ALS using grip force and 3D position analysis – new biomarkers for clinical studies?

Background: Objective and quantitative surrogate markers for assessment of stage and progression of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) are desirable. Analysis of isometric grip forces was shown to be a measure for disease severity and disease progression, e.g., in Huntington's Disease (for review see Reilmann et al. 2004). Objective: To investigate whether coordination of isometric grip forces and 3D object stability in a precision grip task are altered in ALS and correlate to disease severity. Subjects and methods: Patients with ALS (n=14) and age-and-sex-matched healthy controls (n=17) were inst…