These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Relationship between self- and clinically rated spasticity in spinal cord injury.
    Author: Lechner HE, Frotzler A, Eser P.
    Journal: Arch Phys Med Rehabil; 2006 Jan; 87(1):15-9. PubMed ID: 16401432.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVES: To assess the relation between self- and clinically rated spasticity in spinal cord injury (SCI) and to determine the extent to which symptoms like pain are included in the patients' self-rating of spasticity. DESIGN: Part 1: an observational, prospective, cross-sectional study and part 2: an observational, prospective, longitudinal study. SETTING: Swiss paraplegic center. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-seven (part 1) and 8 (part 2) persons with spastic SCI (American Spinal Injury Association grade A or B). INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinical rating of movement-provoked spasticity using the Ashworth Scale; self-rating of general and present spasticity by the subject on a 4-point spasm severity scale and by using a visual analog scale (VAS); and questionnaires asking for antispasticity medication, impact of spasticity on daily life, body segment affected by spasticity, and symptoms associated with its occurrence. RESULTS: There was a poor correlation (rho=.36) between clinically rated (Ashworth Scale) spasticity and self-rated general spasticity and a modest correlation (rho=.70) between Ashworth Scale and self-rated present spasticity in the cross-sectional study in 47 subjects. Questionnaires showed that symptoms like pain and other sensations were associated by the patients with spasticity. There was a significant, but weak, correlation between VAS and Ashworth Scale in the longitudinal study in 3 of the 8 subjects and nonsignificant correlations in the remaining 5 subjects. CONCLUSIONS: A single clinical assessment of spasticity is a poor indication of a patient's general spasticity. Clinical measures of muscle tone-related spasticity should be complemented by self-rating that distinguishes muscle tone-related spasticity from spasticity affecting the sensory nervous system.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]