Effects of prolonged muscle stretch on spasticity by an assessment/treatment system

Spasticity frequently obstructs the functional movements in the stroke patients. The prolonged muscle stretch (PMS) has been proven to be an effective approach to reduce excessive muscle tone. However, PMS technique has failed to provide proper treatment criteria due to the incapacity to detect the severity of spasticity and to quantify the stretch force used during PMS. This situation has caused very high variation in the treatment result. The purpose of this study is to quantify the degree of spasticity and to identify the treatment mechanisms of PMS by the designed PMS treatment and assessment system in which the force applied to the subject can be easily assigned. In addition, the same system can be also used for quantifying the time-course changes of spastic hypertonia. Then, the clinical therapist can quantify the treatment intensity and evaluate treatment effects by way of the quantitative measurement system.