Abstract
Management of muscle spasticity is very important for patients with central nervous disorder, both clinically and in ADL. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of the reflex inhibition posture of the upper limb on the muscle tone of the upper limb and the spasticity of the lower limb. Sixteen hemiplegic patients secondary to CVA participated in the experiment. The force and the opening of the finger joints and the joint angle of the elbow joint were measured with custom-made transducers while those joints were ex-tended manually by an experimenter. The stiffness of the joints was calculated both in a natural posture and in the reflex inhibition posture. At the same time, pendulum test of the lower leg was performed in both postures. The results clearly showed that the muscle tone of the upper limb and the spasticity of the lower limb decreased in the reflex inhibition posture in 4 to 5 subjects.
