Although strength is one of the important characteristics of a normal hand, this factor is not given enough attention in reconstructive surgery as compared to other parameters of motion and sensibility. This paper presents the results of a study on strength in functional adaptations of the normal hand. A baseline of normal grip and pinch strength was obtained by testing a group of one hundred h...

Women may experience a decline in physical function during menopause. Whether this decline is due to aging or to changes in hormonal status is unknown. The authors performed a longitudinal data analysis on data collected between 1996 and 2001 to determine the effects of menopausal status, age, race, and use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on 3-year changes in grip and pinch strength. Parti...

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to examine the test-retest reliability of pinch strength testing in elderly subjects with thumb CMC OA. [Subjects and Methods] A total of 27 patients with unilateral right-thumb CMC OA (mean ± SD age: 81.3 ± 4.7 years) were recruited. Each patient performed three pain-free maximal isometric contractions on each hand on two occasions, one week apart. Three dif...

Pinch analysis is vital in optimizing heat exchanger networks (HENs). Targeting methods are used when determining cost effectiveness with pinch analysis. However, the existing targeting for capital of HEN not suitable wide application scenarios. Therefore, we developed a high-accuracy general capital-cost-targeting method. It built on final structure that was evolved from spaghetti through four...

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of forearm position and outcome score on key, fingertip, and three-jaw chuck pinch strength. Maximum voluntary key, fingertip, and three-jaw chuck pinches were performed by 135 healthy adults (20-88 years old) three times in a pronated, supinated, and neutral forearm position with the right and left hand using a B&L (B&L Engineering, Tustin...

BACKGROUND Aging is accompanied by a marked decline in muscle strength and ability to maintain steady submaximal force. Studies have shown that exercise programs can improve age-related regression of hand function in elderly individuals. The purpose of this study was to train elderly subjects to perform skilled finger movements and to evaluate the changes in hand function involving skillful use...