Physiological responses during clinical spasticity evaluation in elbow flexors in children with cerebral palsy.

BACKGROUND: The Tardieu test is often used to identify and evaluate the severity of spasticity for clinical decision-making and treatment evaluation in cerebral palsy (CP).

OBJECTIVE: The study's objective was to gain further insight into the construct validity of clinical spasticity evaluation in children with CP.

METHODS: The kinematics and neuromuscular response of the biceps brachii (BB) during passive elbow extension were studied when performing the Tardieu test with its corresponding clinical interpretation. Fifteen children with unilateral spastic CP and 15 typically developing (TD) peers 15 (median/interquartile range age; 13/4 and 12/5 years, respectively) participated.

RESULTS: A clinical catch was detected in 9 of the 15 children with CP. During fast passive elbow extension, the CP group had higher BB activation (p = 0.041), lower fast maximal angular velocity (p = 0.001), and decelerated earlier in the extension movement (p = 0.001).

DISCUSSION: On average, the CP group without a clinical detected catch were closer to TD for all those variables, but this only reached statistical 20 significance in the latter variable (p = 0.018). This inconsistency also shows in possibly one false positive and three false negative catch observations.

CONCLUSION: The Tardieu test should be carried out with caution on individual level and more studies including kinematic and neuromuscular measures are necessary.