Relationship between static strength and various other measures in hemiparetic stroke patients.

The strength of 16 muscle groups was measured bilaterally in 38 hemiparetic stroke patients. The relationship between the strengths and gender, weight, age, side of paresis and time since onset were calculated for each muscle group. Although often correlated with the strength of the non-paretic muscle groups; gender, weight and age were very rarely correlated with the strength of the paretic muscle groups. Side of paresis was only correlated with the strength of four non-paretic muscle groups. Time since onset was generally unrelated to strength. Final strength was always correlated with initial strength on the paretic side. These results suggest that cerebrovascular accidents disrupt some of the normal strength relationships on the hemiparetic side, and that the severity of the hemiparesis early in rehabilitation may provide a good indication of the severity to be expected later in rehabilitation.