Influence of muscle cooling on the viscoelastic response of the human ankle to sinusoidal displacements.

The changes in passive mechanical muscle properties due to cooling of the calf in healthy human volunteers were investigated. The technique, using sinusoidal driving of the foot, permitted the separation of muscle stiffness response into its elastic and viscous components. Cooling the calf with ice for 30 minutes increases the rate of change of elastic stiffness with frequency, and it increases the frictional stiffness over a frequency range of 3 to 12Hz. Such cooling would produce an estimated 3% to 10% increase in total stiffness, on average, in a spastic person. This increase in stiffness would counteract reductions in total stiffness achieved during the application of cryotherapy to relieve spasticity. However, one could expect that for a clinically significant reduction of spasticity, the increase in passive stiffness of the muscle generated by cooling would be largely overshadowed by the decrease in reflex reactivity.