Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

quantitative measure of muscle spasticity

I'm glad there at least some researchers out there who think spasticity is worth looking into. At least if this can be quantitatively measured then interventions could be measured as to how much improvement there is.

Developing a quantitative measure of muscle spasticity

Quantitative measurement of spasticity is necessary and can contribute to clinical rehabilitation management, which aims to restore and/or improve function in the affected part of the body. The proposed study shows that by using computerized motional analysis systems, a more quantitative measurement of muscle spasticity can be obtained. High speed, high resolution, infrared, stroboscopic cameras are used to capture kinematic data of the hip, knee, and ankle during pendulum knee drop test. Electromagnetic sensors are used to gather angular motion data of the knee and ankle joint during performance of this test. Implementation of these methods provides accurate, consistent, and reproducible quantification of muscle spasticity, which can be used to assess the effectiveness of clinical treatments.
Another quantitative way to measure it is with inertial sensors
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6Y-51MCG33-2&_user=10&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F2011&_rdoc=9&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_origin=browse&_zone=rslt_list_item&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%235043%232011%23999669997%232909755%23FLA%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=5043&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=34&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=cdad1b7dfd4060b718717d033d0043e1&searchtype=a

 

Background


Spasticity is often clinically assessed with the Tardieu Scale, using goniometry to measure the range of motion and angle of catch. However, the test–retest and inter-rater reliability of these measurements have been questioned. Inertial sensors (IS) have been developed to measure orientation in space and are suggested to be a more appropriate tool than goniometry to measure angles in Tardieu Scale measurements.

Objective


To compare the test–retest and inter-rater reliability of Tardieu Scale scores measured with IS and goniometry.

Methods


Two physiotherapists performed Tardieu Scale measurements in two sessions, using both goniometry and IS, to quantify spasticity in elbow flexors of 13 stroke patients.

Results


For goniometry, test–retest and inter-rater reliability proved to be excellent (ICC 0.86) and fair to good (ICC 0.66), respectively. For IS, both test–retest (ICC 0.76) and inter-rater reliability (ICC 0.84) were excellent.

Conclusions
Inertial sensors are reliable and accurate to use in Tardieu Scale measurements to quantify spasticity in the elbow flexors of hemiplegic stroke patients.

I do know that both my biceps and triceps have some spasticity which would be useful to measure to see if it has lessened in 4 years.


You'll have to buy the articles if you want more info.
Once again trying to suggest something for the medical staff to use.

No comments:

Post a Comment