Xu Dali, Guo Xin, Yang Chung-Yong, Zhang Li-Qun
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 345 E. Superior Street, Room 1406, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 345 E. Superior Street, Room 1406, Chicago, IL 60611, USA ; Department of Automation, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China.
Biomed Res Int. 2015;2015:149875. doi: 10.1155/2015/149875. Epub 2015 Jan 15.
Hyperactive reflexes are commonly observed in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) but there is a lack of convenient and quantitative characterizations. Patellar tendon reflexes were examined in nine SCI patients and ten healthy control subjects by tapping the tendon using a hand-held instrumented hammer at various knee flexion angles, and the tapping force, quadriceps EMG, and knee extension torque were measured to characterize patellar tendon reflexes quantitatively in terms of the tendon reflex gain (G tr), contraction rate (R c ), and reflex loop time delay (t d ). It was found that there are significant increases in G tr and R c and decrease in t d in patients with spinal cord injury as compared to the controls (P < 0.05). This study presented a convenient and quantitative method to evaluate reflex excitability and muscle contraction dynamics. With proper simplifications, it can potentially be used for quantitative diagnosis and outcome evaluations of hyperreflexia in clinical settings.
脊髓损伤（SCI）患者常出现反射亢进，但缺乏便捷的定量表征方法。对9例脊髓损伤患者和10名健康对照者，使用手持式仪器化锤子在不同膝关节屈曲角度轻敲髌腱来检查髌腱反射，并测量敲击力、股四头肌肌电图和膝关节伸展扭矩，以便根据腱反射增益（G tr）、收缩率（R c）和反射环时间延迟（t d）对髌腱反射进行定量表征。结果发现，与对照组相比，脊髓损伤患者的G tr和R c显著增加，t d减少（P < 0.05）。本研究提出了一种便捷的定量方法来评估反射兴奋性和肌肉收缩动力学。经过适当简化，它有可能用于临床环境中反射亢进的定量诊断和结果评估。
