In the present study, we applied mechanical passive stretch with a custom-made motor-controlled device to the hemiparetic wrist in 18 participants with spasticity following stoke. The isokinetic passive extensive displacement of wrist flexor muscles with the device induced resistant reflex forces and subsequent depression of these forces. The indices obtained from maximum RF and the subsequent force reduction after maximum extension (damping force ratio and damping impulse ratio) increased in a velocity-dependent manner and showed significant velocity-dependent correlations with total MAS scores. When the MAS evaluation for the finger flexors was added to the MAS for the wrist flexors, the correlations became stronger. Furthermore, when the patients were divided into a mild group (total MAS 4 or less) and a moderate group (total MAS 5 or more), both the damping force ratio and the damping impulse ratio showed significantly higher values in the moderate group at angular velocities of 60 deg/s and 90 deg/s. Although MAS shows poor reliability at the lower end of the scale40 and all of the patients in this study had MAS scores of 2 or less in both fingers and wrist flexors, significant differences were detected between the mild and moderate groups at 60 deg/s and 90 deg/s. Measurements of the resistance to wrist extension with the current custom device may have detected changes similar to those felt in evaluating stiffness with MAS in a daily clinical setting, and may also overcome the low reliability of MAS, especially in patients with comparatively mild spasticity.
Previous studies measured joint stiffness including spasticity by considering a passive resistance force or torque in the wrist 33–36, 41, elbow29,42, and ankle joints24–28. However, no studies have shown the correlation between the attenuated resistance force after the resistance peak and the MAS in hemiparetic patients with mild to moderate spasticity. This is the first report that focuses on the damping force after the peak resistance force induced by passive movement with isokinetic and motor-controlled velocity.
We often encounter a rapid rise of resistance in the latter half of the range of motion and subsequent weakening of resistance in patients with mild spasticity, when spastic muscle tone is measured manually in the clinic. In addition, the so-called clasp-knife phenomenon, which refers to the attenuation of resistance after an increase in resistance, has been known for a long time and is considered to reflect the subsidence of electromyogram and resistance force43,44.
Although the force output by our device is probably different from that applied when spasticity is evaluated in the daily clinical setting, the measured changes in damping with isokinetic passive movements using the current device might reflect the mechanical changes that constitute the clasp-knife phenomenon and which we feel when evaluating a patient’s spasticity.
Normalization procedure
We calculated the ratio of the damping force to the maximum RF and that of the pure damping impulse to the total damping impulse, which may contribute to normalize the fluctuation of resistance due to the sliding mechanism, the effect of the setting position, and the difference in mechanical responsiveness to passive movement between individuals. Several studies have investigated the correlation between resistance to passive movement in various joints and the Ashworth Scale and MAS using a similar device24–28,33−35. In addition, several studies have applied some ratio indices for normalized values25,26,34, as we did in the current study. The correlation with MAS was clarified26 and the difference between spastic and non-spastic patients in low-velocity passive movement was verified25 only when the analysis was performed using normalized values.
In this study, normalization of the damping force and impulse through the use of a ratio might contribute to detect the difference at relatively low velocities, and to identify significant correlations with the total MAS. In studies using mechanical resistance, it might sometimes be important to apply some normalization procedures when comparing resistance to clarify the differences between individual subjects.
Velocity-dependent resistance and correlation with the MAS
Spasticity has been defined as a velocity-dependent increase in resistance during passive stretch. Previous studies have reported that the maximum resistance against passive movements increased in a velocity-dependent manner25,26,35,45 and was correlated with the MAS35. However, in the current study, the maximum RF tended to decrease with velocity, while the normalized damping part tended to increase and showed significant correlations with the MAS in a velocity-dependent manner. One of the reasons why the resistance decreased in a speed-dependent manner in this study could be that measurements were performed in the order 30 deg/s, 60 deg/s, and 90 deg/s with a short interval. Previous studies have indicated that repetitive passive movements reduced reflex torque46 in elbow flexors and post-activation depression in the soleus muscle47. In the wrist and finger flexors, the long latency component of the stretch reflex decreases at faster repetition rates48. As in the current study, it has been reported that the resistance decreased in a velocity-dependent manner in patients with mild spasticity after stroke, and was not correlated with MAS44. However, in the current study, we detected a velocity-dependent increasing tendency by focusing on the damping part, which has not been a focus of previous studies, and found significant correlations with MAS.
In previous studies, electromyographical and resistance changes in spastic muscles were investigated at various passive movement velocities from 5 deg/s to 500 deg/s in the wrist joint33,35,36,41,49,50,51. Among these studies, a few found a significant correlation between the velocity-dependent resistance component and MAS at low-velocity joint movements of 50–70 deg/s 35,49, and our study also supports these findings.
In the current study, the correlation between the damping part and the MAS became stronger when the MAS in finger flexors was added to the MAS in wrist flexors. Since the extrinsic finger muscles affect the passive component of wrist joint stiffness51,52, it was considered that the stiffness of the extrinsic flexors of the fingers fixed to the device in the extended position may further affect the resistance to wrist extension. These changes in the correlations may indicate that the measured changes in force in the damping part quantitatively detect the spastic changes in wrist and finger flexors simultaneously and may support the reliability and validity of MAS itself in patients with mild spasticity after stroke.
Force components that make up the damping force
The damping part that we focused on might be mainly associated with a neural component that includes spasticity. According to several studies, the resistance generated by passive wrist dorsiflexion consists of inertia, elasticity, viscosity, and neural components caused by muscle stretch reflexes35,42. In post-stroke patients, Lindberg et al. showed that there are individual differences in the magnitude of passive resistance and in the composition of each component. However, for these components, the viscosity and neural components change in a velocity-dependent manner, and the elastic component continues with constant resistance and increases at the end of the range of extension. Additionally, the proportion of neural components in the total resistance is relatively large35. On the other hand, inertia appears and disappears for a short time at the start of the increase in resistance and just before reaching the maximum range of extension26,35. Based on these reports, the resistance damping part that we focused on in the current study could have arisen from both the viscosity and the neural components and the damping part might be mainly associated with the neural component including spasticity, since that part depended on velocity and appeared after the wrist joint reached the maximum range of extension.