Lower Handgrip Strength in Girls with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) - A Case-control Study.

Introduction: The etiology of AIS is believed to be multifactorial. Muscle imbalance and asymmetry in paraspinal muscle have been demonstrated in AIS. However, to our knowledge, there is no report inveestigating the muscle function in terms of muscle strength in AIS. The aim of this study is to compare the Handgrip Strength between AIS girls and Controls. Methods: A large-scale case-control study was conducted since 2000 and recruited a total of 536 AIS girls and 266 Controls between 11 to 16 years of age. Handgrip strength (HGS) was measured using a dynamometer (Nakamura Scientific Co., LTD) and the maximum strength was determined from 3 repeated measurements for both the dominant and non-dominant hands. Results: Univariate analysis indicated that AIS girls had a significantly lower HGS of the dominant hand than the controls (p=0.02); and HGS was significantly associated with age, body weight and armspan. After adjusted for age, body weight and armspan with the regression model, negative association is found between AIS status and HGS, for both the dominant hand (Adj. B=-0.856, p=0.01) and the non-dominant hand (Adj. B=-0.520, p=0.032). Thus, the results indicate that AIS was associated with lower HGS. Conclusions and discussion: HGS in AIS was lower than controls, suggesting muscle dysfunction in AIS. Further studies are warranted to explore its role in the pathogenesis of AIS and to investigate whether muscle dysfunction quantified in terms of HGS would predispose spinal deformities to progress and its prognostic value for curve progression in AIS. This study is supported by RGC of Hong Kong SAR (Project no: 467808 and 468809) and CUHK Direct Grant (2010.2.042).

Citation

W S Yu, K Y Chan, F W P Yu, H Y Yeung, K M Lee, K W Ng, Y Qiu, T P Lam, J C Y Cheng. Lower Handgrip Strength in Girls with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) - A Case-control Study. Studies in health technology and informatics. 2012;176:475

PMID: 22744578

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