A novel sensor-based assessment of lower limb spasticity in children with cerebral palsy

If we are ever going to cure spasticity we need objective measurements of the problem to be solved. Even though this is in children and for cerebral palsy anyone with a couple of functioning brain cells could repurpose this for stroke. But that won't occur because we have fucking failures of stroke associations writing press releases rather than solving ANY of the problems in stroke.  

A novel sensor-based assessment of lower limb spasticity in children with cerebral palsy 

• Seoyoung Choi,
• Yong Beom Shin,
• Soo-Yeon Kim and
• Jonghyun KimEmail authorView ORCID ID profile

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation201815:45

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-018-0388-5

©  The Author(s). 2018

Received: 11 September 2017

Accepted: 14 May 2018

Published: 4 June 2018

Abstract

Background

To provide effective interventions for spasticity, accurate and reliable spasticity assessment is essential. For the assessment, the Modified Tardieu Scale (MTS) has been widely used owing to its simplicity and convenience. However, it has poor or moderate accuracy and reliability.

Methods

We proposed a novel inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based MTS assessment system to improve the accuracy and reliability of the MTS itself. The proposed system consists of a joint angle calculation algorithm, a function to detect abnormal muscle reaction (a catch and clonus), and a visual biofeedback mechanism. Through spastic knee and ankle joint assessment, the proposed IMU-based MTS assessment system was compared with the conventional MTS assessment system in 28 children with cerebral palsy by two raters.

Results

The results showed that the proposed system has good accuracy (root mean square error < 3.2°) and test-retest and inter-rater reliabilities (ICC > 0.8), while the conventional MTS system has poor or moderate reliability. Moreover, we found that the deteriorated reliability of the conventional MTS system comes from its goniometric measurement as well as from irregular passive stretch velocity.

Conclusions

The proposed system, which is clinically relevant, can significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of the MTS in lower limbs for children with cerebral palsy.