Spasticity and Rigidity
What is Spasticity?
- Increased tone of muscles called as spasticity
- Spasticity – Resistance determined by the angle and velocity of motion
- This is due to cortico-spinal tract disease
What is Rigidity?
- Rigidity – similar resistance in all angles of motion
- Suggests – extra- pyramidal disease
What is paratonia ?
- Fluctuating Hypertonia
- Hypertonia that changes with resistance
- Form of hypertonia with an involuntary variable resistance during passive movement
- May have Frontal lobe pathways dysfunction or normal
- Paratonia- alteration of tone to passive movement,
- Types of paratonia – divided into oppositional paratonia (“gegenhalten,” “paratonic rigidity”) and facilitory paratonia.
What is Cogwheel rigidity?
- Passive motion elicits jerky interruptions in resistance
- This is seen in parkinsonism.
What is Gegenhalten?
Paratonia is the inability to relax muscles during muscle tone assessment.
There are two types of paratonia:
- Oppositional Paratonia
- Facilitatory Paratonia
- Oppositional paratonia – “gegenhalten” – occurs when subjects involuntarily resist to passive movements,
- Facilitatory paratonia – “mitgehen” – occurs when subjects involuntary assist passive movements
