We examined spatiotemporal abnormalities in the flexor reflex response in the impaired upper extremity of hemiparetic subjects. Electrical stimulation was used to elicit flexion reflexes in both upper extremities of 8 hemiparetic brain-injured and 6 control subjects. Electromyograms (EMGs) were recorded from 12 arm muscles, and reflex forces and moments were recorded at the wrist with a load ce...

Muscle fatigue can cause people to change their movement patterns and these changes could contribute to acute or overuse injuries. However, these effects depend on which muscles are fatigued. The purpose of this study was to determine the differential effects of proximal and distal upper extremity muscle fatigue on repetitive movements. Fourteen subjects completed a repetitive ratcheting task b...

Abstract Background Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a degenerative disease that affects the upper and lower motor neurons. The onset of frequently focal, usually involving distal segments extremities. A dissociated pattern muscle atrophy commonly found in hands feet. This study aims to investigate presence (if any) split indices ALS patients correlate these with confounding factors. tota...

BACKGROUND Loss of elbow flexion due to traumatic palsy of the brachial plexus represents a major functional handicap.Then, the first goal in the treatment of the flail arm is to restore the elbow flexion by primary direct nerve surgery or secondary reconstructive surgery. There are various methods to restore elbow flexion which are well documented in the medical literature but the most known a...

We undertook this investigation to determine the interrater reliability of manual tests of elbow flexor muscle spasticity graded on a modified Ashworth scale. We each independently graded the elbow flexor muscle spasticity of 30 patients with intracranial lesions. We agreed on 86.7% of our ratings. The Kendall's tau correlation between our grades was .847 (p less than .001). Thus, the relations...

Prior work has shown that cerebellar subjects have difficulty adjusting for interaction torques that occur during multi-jointed movements. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this deficit is due to a general inability to generate sufficient levels of phasic torque inability or due to an inability to generate muscle torques that predict and compensate for interaction torques. A se...

The activity of the biceps brachii and lateral head of the triceps brachii were compared during the contact placing reactions elicited by tactile stimuli applied to the lateral, medial or dorsal aspects of the forepaw to verify the hypothesis that common movement strategy was used in all these reactions. Similar latencies and patterns of muscle activation have been found for the medial and dors...

PURPOSE Our goal was to investigate the capacity of a Steindler flexorplasty to restore elbow flexion to persons with C5-C6 brachial plexus palsy. In this procedure the origin of the flexor-pronator mass is moved proximally onto the humeral shaft. We examined how the choice of the proximal attachment site for the flexor-pronator mass affects elbow flexion restoration, especially considering pos...

Simultaneous recordings of action potentials (APs) of multiple single motor units (MUs) were obtained in brachialis and biceps (caput breve) muscles during si­ nusoidally modulated isometric contractions of elbow flexor muscles and during sinusoidal flexion/extension movements in the elbow against a preload in the exten­ sion direction. The results show that MUs typically fire in one short burs...