Tally counter test as a simple and objective assessment of cervical myelopathy

• Published in: European spine journal Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 183 - 188
• Main Authors: Kimura, Atsushi, Seichi, Atsushi, Endo, Teruaki, Norimatsu, Yusuke, Inoue, Hirokazu, Higashi, Takahiro, Hoshino, Yuichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.01.2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Area Under Curve; Central nervous system diseases; Decompression, Surgical; Diagnostic Equipment; Female; Hand; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neurologic Examination - instrumentation; Neurologic Examination - methods; Neurosurgery; Original; Original Article; ROC Curve; Spinal cord; Spinal Cord Compression - diagnosis; Spinal Cord Compression - surgery; Spine; Surgical Orthopedics; Young Adult; Myelopathy; Laminoplasty; Quantitative assessment; Outcome; Cervical spine
• ISSN: 0940-6719; 1432-0932; 1432-0932
• DOI: 10.1007/s00586-012-2586-3

Purpose To test the usefulness of a novel performance test, the tally counter test (counter test), which uses a hand tally counter to objectively assess the severity of cervical myelopathy. Methods Eighty-three patients with compressive cervical myelopathy (mean age 64 ± 13 years) who were undergoing cervical laminoplasty and 280 healthy control subjects (aged 20–89 years) were tested. The subjects were instructed to push the button of a tally counter as many times as possible in 10 s. The average of the right- and left-sided values in each patient was used for analysis. In the patient group, counter test values were compared with Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) and Japanese version of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey scores preoperatively and 12 months postoperatively. Results The average counter test value was significantly lower in patients with myelopathy than age- and gender-matched controls (32.9 ± 10.9 vs. 46.9 ± 8.5, P  < 0.0001). The counter test value was significantly higher at 2 weeks postoperatively than preoperatively ( P  = 0.0014). Counter test values showed a moderate correlation with JOA scores and a weak to moderate correlation with SF-36 physical functioning, role functioning, and role-emotional scores both pre- and postoperatively. The intraclass correlation coefficient of counter test values was high both pre- and postoperatively. Conclusion The tally counter test is objective and quantitative assessment method for patients with cervical myelopathy. The test is simple, reliable, and capable of detecting small functional changes.