Premium
Cutaneomuscular reflex responses recorded from the lower limb in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy
Author(s) -
Gibbs John,
Harrison Linda M,
Stephens John A,
Evans Andrew L
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
developmental medicine and child neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.658
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1469-8749
pISSN - 0012-1622
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1999.tb00638.x
Subject(s) - spasticity , spastic , cerebral palsy , medicine , trunk , reflex , physical medicine and rehabilitation , spastic cerebral palsy , lower limb , upper limb , psychology , anesthesia , surgery , biology , ecology
Cutaneomuscular reflex (CMR) responses were recorded from lower‐limb and trunk muscles in 27 subjects with cerebral palsy (CP) (spastic, 21; athetoid, six) and in neurologically healthy (control) subjects, aged 3 to 15 years, while standing. In the 21 subjects with spastic CP, but not in the six subjects with athetoid CP, CMR responses were more widely distributed between ipsilateral lower‐limb and trunk muscles compared with age‐matched control children. CMR responses in older subjects with CP were similar to younger control subjects, lacking supraspinally mediated, long‐latency components. Short‐latency, spinally‐mediated, excitatory CMR components were seen simultaneously in pairs of distal, antagonistic lower‐limb muscles in half of the subjects with spastic CP, but in none of the control children. In subjects with spastic‐type CP, the abnormal reflex responses indicate disordered spinal and supraspinal inputs to motor neurones, although there was no convincing correlation between these responses and the severity of spasticity.