The spasticity is a problem on the recovery of hemiplegic patients caused by C. V. A.. Many technics and medicines are used clinically to reduce the spasticity.
But the judgment whether they are effective or not must be made quite objectively and frequently before and after the treatment. To that purpose, it is desirable to measure the grade with instrument which has the following conditions,
1) high sensitivity
2) stability
3) reproductivity
4) easy applicability for the clinic
Hither-to many methods to measure the resistance against the passive movement of muscle have been used, but few satisfied the above-mentioned conditions.
We applied the semi-conductor straingage to measure it. Because it has 100 times high sensitivity compared with the usual metal-foil-straingage. Accordingly, we can decrease the amplification grade, so that the S/N ratio will be improved. In spite of the using the manual movement of the fore-arm of the testee, we recognized the satisfying stability, reproductibility and the objectivity owing to the reasonable structure of the instrument. The relative small size of the apparat does not give the patient any feel of tension, and also it's very handy.
Our instrument consists of one pole and two metal arms, the proximal arm fix the upper-arm and the distal arm, attached the cantilever-beam which fit with the semi-conductor straingage, fix the forearm. The metallic-arm can be rotable from 0° to 135° freely. A potentiometer is equipped to the axis. The electric signal from the cantilever-beam and the potentiometer are transmitted through the amplifier to the recorder.
Using our instrument, we obtained same curve on repeating 50 times tests in the hemiplegic patient with spasticity. The same results were obtained even by different examiners.
Therefore we had the confidence of its objectivity, stability and reproductivility.
The curves of normal adults were almost flat and stay near the baseline. In the spastic patients, two types of curve observed, the one rose rapidly and then suddenly fell down according as the stretching. The another rose steadily in proportion to stretching. In the former case, we observed clinically the clasp-knife phenomen.
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