Spasticity is the velocity-dependent increase in muscle tone due to the exaggeration of stretch reflex. It is only one of the several components of the upper motor neuron syndrome (UMNS). The central lesion causing the UMNS disrupts the balance of supraspinal inhibitory and excitatory inputs directed to the spinal cord, leading to a state of disinhibition of the stretch reflex. However, the delay between the acute neurological insult (trauma or stroke) and the appearance of spasticity argues against it simply being a release phenomenon and suggests some sort of plastic changes, occurring in the spinal cord and also in the brain. An important plastic change in the spinal cord could be the progressive reduction of postactivation depression due to limb immobilization. As well as hyperexcitable stretch reflexes, secondary soft tissue changes in the paretic limbs enhance muscle resistance to passive displacements. Therefore, in patients with UMNS, hypertonia can be divided into two components: hypertonia mediated by the stretch reflex, which corresponds to spasticity, and hypertonia due to soft tissue changes, which is often referred as nonreflex hypertonia or intrinsic hypertonia. Compelling evidences state that limb mobilisation in patients with UMNS is essential to prevent and treat both spasticity and intrinsic hypertonia.

Current clinical practice for the treatment of bartonellosis relies mostly on expert opinion and antimicrobial susceptibility data. Randomized controlled trials are needed in the field to compare different treatment options.

RSWT can reduce pain and muscle tone in MS patients without adverse effects. The lack of RSWT effects on spinal excitability supports the idea that RSWT is likely to act on non-reflex hypertonia, for example reducing muscle fibrosis.

BACKGROUND: Falls are frequent in Parkinson's disease and ageing. Impairments in the cholinergic-mediated attentional supervision of gait may contribute to increased fall risk, especially when obstacles challenge gait. Interventions combining motor-cognitive approaches have been shown to improve motor performance, cognitive skills and falls number. Here, we hypothesized that an intervention simulating an attention-demanding walking condition could impact not only complex gait performance and fall risk but also short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI), as a marker of cholinergic activity. METHODS: Thirty-nine participants at falls risk (24 Parkinson's disease subjects and 15 older adults) were recruited in a randomized controlled trial. Participants were assigned to treadmill training or treadmill training with non-immersive virtual reality intervention and trained 3 times a week for 6 weeks. SAI, a transcranial magnetic stimulation paradigm, was used to assess cholinergic activity. Gait kinematics was measured during usual walking and while negotiating physical obstacles. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and gait assessments were performed pre, post, and 6 months post intervention. RESULTS: Treadmill training combined with non-immersive virtual reality induced an increase in inhibition of the SAI protocol on cortical excitability, improved obstacle negotiation performance and induced a reduction of the number of falls compared to treadmill training. Furthermore, the more SAI increased after training, the more the obstacle negotiation performance improved and fall rate decreased.

Objective: Spastic dystonia is one of the positive phenomena of the upper motor neuron syndrome (UMNS). It is characterised by the inability to relax a muscle leading to a spontaneous, although stretch-sensitive, tonic contraction. Although spastic dystonia is a recognized cause of muscle hypertonia, its prevalence among hypertonic muscles of stroke subjects has never been investigated.Differently from spasticity, which is an exaggerated stretch reflex, spastic dystonia is viewed as an efferent phenomenon, due to an abnormal central drive to motoneurons.Methods: In 23 hemiparetic stroke subjects showing increased muscle tone of wrist flexors, surface EMG was used to investigate the presence of spontaneous, stretch-sensitive EMG activity in flexor carpi radialis.Results: Spontaneous, stretch-sensitive EMG activity was found in 17 subjects. In the remaining 6 subjects, no spontaneous EMG activity was found. Conclusions:The majority of stroke subjects is affected by spastic dystonia in their hypertonic wrist flexor muscles. Only a minority of subjects is affected by spasticity.Significance: To stop spastic dystonia from being the neglected aspect of UMNS, it is essential to link its definition to increased muscle tone, as occurred for spasticity. Recognizing the real phenomena underling muscle hypertonia could improve its management. Highlights:· 74% of stroke subjects was affected by spastic dystonia in their hypertonic wrist flexor muscles · Only a minority of stroke subjects was affected by spasticity in their hypertonic wrist flexor muscles · Evaluation of EMG activity during static muscle stretch is pivotal to assess spastic dystonia

In a clinical setting, where motor-driven systems are not readily available, the major difficulty in the assessment of the stretch reflex lies in the control of passive limb displacement velocity. A potential approach to this problem arises from the use of manual sinusoidal movements (made by continuous alternating flexions and extensions) paced by an external stimulus. Unfortunately, there are conditions in which sinusoidal movements induce interfering phenomena such as the shortening reaction or postactivation depression. In the present paper, a novel manual method to control the velocity of passive linear movements is described and the results obtained from both healthy subjects and spastic patients are reported. This method is based on the synchronisation of movements with tones played by a metronome at different speeds. In a first set of experiments performed in healthy subjects, we demonstrated consistent control of velocity during passive limb movements using this method. Four joints usually examined during muscle tone assessment were tested: wrist, elbow, knee and ankle joints. Following this, we conducted a longitudinal assessment of the stretch reflex amplitude in wrist flexor muscles in patients with spasticity treated with botulinum toxin type A. The evaluators were not only able to vary the movement velocity based on the metronome speed, but also could reproduce the respective speeds two weeks later, despite the changing degree of hypertonia. This method is easy to perform in a clinical setting and hardware requirements are minimal, making it an attractive and robust procedure for the widespread clinical assessment of reflex hypertonia.

Background and purposeMuscle‐strengthening, stretching or proprioceptive treatments may slow symptom progression in Charcot—Marie–Tooth (CMT) neuropathy. The aim of the study was to evaluate safety and efficacy of treadmill training in CMT1A.MethodsWe planned a multicenter, prospective, randomized, single‐blind, controlled study. We recruited 53 outpatients affected by CMT1A and randomized them into two treatment groups: one underwent stretching and proprioceptive exercise, whereas the other was additionally treated with treadmill training (TreSPE). Primary outcome measures (OMs) were the walking evaluations and secondary OM was the balance assessment. All participants were assessed at baseline and after 3 and 6 months of treatment.ResultsMost patients showed an improvement in at least one OM after 3 months [42/47 (89.4%)] and 6 months [38/40 (95%)] of treatment. No adverse events were reported in either group.ConclusionsThe most important finding was that both stretching and proprioceptive exercise and treadmill training had an objective benefit on patients affected by CMT disease, without causing overwork weakness. We had a low rate of drop out and did not find deterioration in motor performance. Our results also confirm that applying evidence‐based medicine methods to rehabilitative research is the correct way to test the efficacy of a treatment.

To describe a new test to quantitatively evaluate hand function in patients affected by Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy (CMT). The sensor-engineered glove test (SEGT) was applied to CMT patients (N: 26) and compared with a cohort of healthy controls (HC, N: 26). CMT patients were further divided into subjects with clinically normal (group 1) or impaired hand (group 2) function. The SEGT parameters evaluated were touch duration, inter-tapping interval, and movement rate parameters of two different sequences: finger tapping (FT) and index-medium-ring-little (IMRL) performed at self-paced mode (SPM) and maximum velocity (MV). Hand function and strength were assessed by the 9-hole peg test (9HPT) and dynamometry. Disability of patients was measured by the CMT neuropathy score. CMT patients had significantly worst performances at SEGT than controls regarding the rate of execution of both FT (at MV) and IMRL sequences (at SPM and MV). The rate parameter at MV in IMRL sequence showed a significant trend of decreasing in its average between HC (n: 26, rate = 3.08 ± 0.52 Hz), group 1 (n: 9, rate = 2.64 ± 0.66 Hz) and group 2 (n: 17, rate = 2.19 ± 0.45 Hz) (p for trend <0.001). No correlations were found with either 9HPT, dynamometry, electrophysiology, and the CMT neuropathy score. The SEGT test is sensitive to show hand dysfunction in CMT patients, with and without clinically impaired hands.