Stretch reflex adaptation in elbow flexors during repeated passive movements in unilateral brain-injured patients

Critical review of passive muscle stretch: implications for the treatment of children in vegetative and minimally conscious states

“…PROM consists of repeated movement of a joint within its available ROM. Only one study [23] was identified which investigated the effect of repeated PROM on spasticity. Schmit et al [23] had their subjects perform 20± 30 repeated, externally imposed, sequential elbow flexion± extension movements.…”

Quantitative evaluation of motor functional recovery process in chronic stroke patients during robot-assisted wrist training

“…During a treatment with continuous passive motion, the movements of patient's limb(s) are guided by the robot system as the patient remained in relaxed condition. This type of intervention was found to be effective in temporarily reducing hypertonia in chronic strokes (Schmit et al, 2000), and in maintaining joint flexibility and stability for persons after stroke in early stage (within 3 weeks after the onset) (Volpe et al, 2000). However, passive movement did not significantly benefit motor improvement (Volpe et al, 2000).…”

Validation of portable muscle tone measurement device for quantifying velocity-dependent properties in elbow spasticity

“…In our approach, we ignore the inertia component and only estimate the viscous component to represent the velocity-dependent contribution in muscle tone. Besides, a to-and-fro stretch in elbow joint was reported to reduce the muscle tone during evaluation of spasticity because the adaptation in mechanical part and neural regulation of elbow joint [17]. In our approach, random application of different stretch frequencies and inter-session resting might minimize the effects.…”

“…Compared to the motordriven system, however, several important testing conditions in portable system such as stretch velocity and stretch range are less accurate and not easy to control during clinical trials of manual stretch. Considerable errors might be introduced because the stretch velocity and range always affect the measured muscle tone [17,18]. The common approach taken by current portable muscle tone measurement device is to neglect the stretch velocity, assuming either stretching at constant velocity or only at a very low velocity.…”