The normal range of movement of various hand and foot joints mentioned above may be used as a standard for making clinical diagnoses, ff the examination shows limited movement of a certain joint, this may indicate a pathological change in the local structure or its correspondent organ, and a diagnosis can be made in combination with other diagnostic methods.
The patient's palms are placed face to face in a neutral position, and both elbows are then raised up with the wrist joints gradually dorsi-flexed until reaching 90 degrees on each side. If the dorsi-flextion of one wrist is limited, the palms will deviate to the normal side at an angle greater than 90 degree between the forearm and palm of the abnormal side (Fig. 4-4a).
For examination of palmar flexion of the wrist joint, the dorsum of the hands are put face to face in a neutral position, and are then gradually raised until both forearms are on a horizontal level and an angle of 90 degree is formed between palm
