2017 Volume 66 Issue 1 Pages 40-46
The H wave has been used as an established electrophysiological measure in the evaluation of spasticity. However, before intrathecal baclofen (ITB) therapy, the H wave could not be elicited to assess its efficacy. Also, after ITB therapy, the H wave could not be elicited to assess quantitatively the treatment efficacy. Therefore, we evaluated whether the F wave is an effective parameter for evaluating the efficacy of ITB therapy in the treatment of spasticity. Furthermore, we examined the association between the F wave parameters and the features of the clinical presentation of spasticity. In this study, we used data from 11 legs of 7 patients with spastic paralysis. These patients were aged 3–11 years when they visited the Department of Pediatric Neurology of Tottori University Hospital to participate in the ITB trial. We examined F wave parameters including persistency, F/M, difference between the maximum and minimum amplitudes, number of inflection points, the area, and variation coefficient of the area. We used the Ashworth scale score (AS) to average knee extension and flexion as well as ankle dorsiflexion. F/M and the area were significantly decreased (p < 0.01, p < 0.05) after treatment. Furthermore, before ITB therapy, we observed a significant correlation between scores on the AS and the number of inflection points (r = 0.618, p < 0.05) and a strong negative correlation between scores on the AS and the area (r = −0.763, p < 0.01). It is expected that F/M and the area will be useful for assessing the treatment efficacy in the future.
