Spasticity
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Clinic
- Spasticity is a condition in which there is Muscular Hypertonia / Muscle-stiffness.
- It might interfere with movement, speech, or Discomfort / Pain.
- It is usually caused by damage to UMN and is one of the components of UMN syndrome.
- It is often used interchangeably with hypertonia.
- It is dependent on the Muscle speed and range of motion and manifests itself when the muscle contracts at high speed. This means that when the speed and amplitude of contraction exceeds the threshold, Spasticity occurs
Diagnostic Characters
- It is asymmetrical because it involves the antagonist muscles
- it is velocity-dependent and increases in tonic stretch reflexes with exaggerated tendon jerks, resulting from hyper-excitability of the stretch reflex as one component of UMN syndrome
- It is Strength dependent: Increasing the strength of muscle stretch reflex causes the muscle to contract with greater intensity and power in response to stretching, and this contraction has a direct relationship with the strength of stretching. In this condition, spasticity is occurred.
Analogues
Spasticity has two analogues
- Rigidity: Spasticity is distinguished from rigidity by its dependence upon the speed of the muscle stretch and by the presence of other positive UMN signs.
- Spasm