Assessment of Hyperactive Reflexes in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury
Open accessAbstract
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 (Gtr), contraction rate (Rc), and reflex loop time delay (td). It was found that there are significant increases inGtrandRcand decrease intdin 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.
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A previous study showed that EMG amplitude and torque were stronger in spinal cord injury patients than in healthy volunteers, consistent with our EMG results.
“A previous study showed that the EMG amplitude and torque were stronger in spinal cord injury patients than in healthy volunteers29, consistent with our EMG results.”
From Quantification of patellar tendon reflex using portable mechanomyography and electromyography devices (2021) · cites this paper as [29]
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- Authors
- Xu, D., Guo, X., Yang, C.-Y., & Zhang, L.-Q.
- Affiliations
- Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (US)
- Northwestern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zhang, Li-Qun
- Venue
- BioMed Research International
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015
- Volume
- 2015
- Pages
- 1-8
- ISSN
- 1110-7243 (ISSN-L)
- 2314-6133
- 2314-6141
- PMC
- PMC4310310
- OpenAlex
- W2050692694
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 0.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- BioMed Research International (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Spinal Cord Injury Research
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Muscle activation and electromyography studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Botulinum Toxin and Related Neurological Disorders
- Keywords
- spinal cord injury, hyperreflexia, patellar reflex, reflex gain, knee flexion angle, knee extension torque, muscle contraction dynamics
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Muscle Contraction, Reflex, Stretch, Spinal Cord Injuries, Time Factors, Case-Control Studies
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