The Technical Ability and Performing Scale (TAPS): A newly developed patient-reported functional rating scale for Musician's focal dystonia

Background: Musician's Focal Dystonia (MFD) is the most common adult-onset dystonia involving the hand and can cause a professional music career to end. MFD affects about 1% of professional musicians and is a challenging clinical condition to treat. This work aimed to validate the Technical Ability and Performing Scale (TAPS), a newly-developed patient-reported functional rating scale for the clinical assessment of the MFD burden. Methods: Seventy-seven musicians with MFD (40.84 +/- 13.14 years) who accessed Sol Diesis Service were consecutively enrolled. Each subject filled in the TAPS after playing six technical passages of different complexity for 45 s each. The clinicians also collected the Arm Dystonia Disability Scale (ADDS) and Tubiana-Chamagne Scale (TCS). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess reliability; concurrent validity was measured using correlation with validated tools (ADDS and TCS). Results: Our results showed that the symptoms of dystonia appeared at around 33 years of age and lasted for at least three years. The Cronbach's alpha displayed good internal consistency (0.817) for Technical Ability (TA). The two TAPS scores, TA and Performing Score (PS), positively correlated with TCS total score and negatively with ADDS total score (concurrent validity). Conclusions: The TAPS is a reliable and valid tool for the clinical assessment of the MFD burden. This patient-reported outcome measure may facilitate patient engagement in decision-making about their care and can help healthcare professionals to monitor the musician's change during the rehabilitative intervention.

Automated summary

The study found that symptoms of dystonia typically appeared around the age of 33 and lasted for at least three years. The TAPS demonstrated good internal consistency and is a reliable and valid tool for assessing the burden of MFD in clinical settings.