Detection and quantification of spasticity

  Copyright: © RPE  

Spasticity leads to movement impairment and loss of quality of life. Although the assessment of spasticity is important for the clinical management of affected patients, there is still a lack of objective assessment methods to detect and quantify spasticity during the execution of everyday movements.

Therefore, a new method was developed at the RPE based on the surface Electrography, which allows both the detection and quantification of spasticity.

  Copyright: © RPE Gradient of muscular activation change with movement velocity as a function of the WMFT score (higher WMFT score = more severe impairment due to spasticity). Blue dots: different patients. Orange dot: healthy volunteers

Here, the degree of muscular activation is measured with surface electrodes. In addition, the position of the joints and the movement velocity is determined with the help of motion sensors. Subsequently, the change in muscular activation with the movement velocity is determined as a gradient of the regression line.

If the gradient is negative, there is no spasticity. If the gradient is positive, spasticity has occurred and the higher the gradient, the more impaired the movement is by the spasticity.