To take the test, people run their finger
along a special textured surface.
Image: iStockphoto

Clinicians will soon have a new tool for quickly, reliably and accurately assessing the sensory ability of people who have suffered a stroke or other central or peripheral nervous system condition.

The tool, known as AsTex, has a Perspex panel with a surface textured to feel progressively smoother toward one end. Clients run a finger along it from the coarser textured end and stop when the surface feels smooth to them.

The results are then compared with those of previous tests and measured against a normative range of sensation.

Dr Kimberly Miller (Melbourne Physiotherapy School) developed AsTex as part of PhD research which looked at the effectiveness of task-related upper limb training following a stroke.

She says the device will be a big help in the clinical setting. “I found that devices currently used in clinic to assess sensory impairment were inappropriate because they demanded too much time and attention from someone who had recently suffered a stroke.

“Furthermore, many of the ‘gold standard’ sensory measures were not reliable between testing sessions in this clinical population, so I could not be confident that the changes in performance in my study participants could be attributed to real changes in hand sensation.”

Dr Miller says the University’s Rehabilitation Sciences Research Centre (RSRC) at Austin Health has been using her invention to evaluate sensory impairments associated with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

“A number of hand surgeons have also expressed interest in using AsTex to evaluate sensation as a potential indicator of recovery in individuals who undergo carpal tunnel releases,” she says.

AsTex first took shape in 1999 in work Dr Miller undertook alongside Professor Mary Galea (Clinical Chair of Physiotherapy, RSRC), Professor Tony Goodwin (Head of Anatomy and Cell Biology) and Dr Heather Wheat (Anatomy and Cell Biology).

“The initial version was further refined in 2000, based on my experience with testing in individuals with stroke, so that it was easier and more accurate to use in the clinic,” says Dr Miller.

“It took about four years to undertake studies and collect the data to establish the reliability of AsTex between testing sessions and to develop a normative database so that measures taken in participants could be compared with neurologically normal people of the same age group.”

It was this latest version that was selected as the Judges’ Winner when it appeared on the ABC’s New Inventors program recently.

Dr Miller reports that since the episode aired she has received “a huge number of questions, suggestions and requests from those with sensory impairments, academics, occupational therapists, surgeons and fellow physiotherapists.

“It has provided a unique opportunity to correspond with a broad range of people, to raise awareness of the potential issues associated with sensory impairments and how we might manage these impairments better,” she says.