Test and Retest of Spasticity and Mechanomyographic Signs of Elbow Flexors and Extenders in Paralympic Boccia Athlete who has Cerebral Palsy: pilot Study

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mechanomyography (MMG) in the classification of Paralympic boccia athletes. Method: In this pilot study, the volunteer selected with Cerebral Palsy was evaluated using the spasticity test (ASAS) on the right and left arms, collecting mechanomyographic data during this test, using two MMG sensors. Sensor 1 was fixed to the skin surface at the motor point of the elbow flexors and sensor 2 was fixed to the motor point of the elbow extensors. MMG signals were processed using the MATLAB® software, in which the standard deviation was determined for each axis of each sensor, as well as the average of the deviations between sessions for the right and left sides of the flexor and extensor muscles arranged for each evaluator. Results: There were numerical differences between the mean deviations for each rater of the same muscle group in the same arm; however, these differences are subtle and show a pattern for the mechanomyographic signal even when different evaluators use perform the test. Conclusion: It was concluded that MMG is viable in the use of spasticity identification and the mean values ​​of all evaluations of evaluators 1 and 2 in the flexor group (MSD) were kept between 0.1723 mV (Y) and 0.1225 mV ( Z), 0.1904 (Y) mV to 0.1601 mV (Z), with no divergence among the evaluators, but if there was the MMG it would be fundamental in the evaluation of spasticity.