Affiliations: [a] Department of Pediatric Orthopedics and Traumatology, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland
| [b] Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Brian Po-Jung Chen, PT, MD, ul. 28 Czerwca 1956r. nr 135/147, 61-545 Poznań, Poland. Tel.: +48 61 831 0360; Fax: +48 61 831 0173; E-mail: brianchen.md@icloud.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Weakness is a major impairment in many movement disorders, including cerebral palsy (CP), which presents as a decrease in muscle strength. Manual muscle testing (MMT) is very popular in clinical practice, however it has many limitations. OBJECTIVE:(1) Whether maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) measures differ across clinical MMT groups; (2) Whether an association exists between clinical MMT score groups and instrumental MVC measures. METHODS:Twenty-one participants with spastic CP were recruited (11 females and 10 males; age = 13.46±3.62 years). To achieve the aims of the study, we investigated the relationship between qualitative (MMT) and instrumental (MVC) measures of knee flexor muscles’ strength in patients with CP. RESULTS:MVC values increased somewhat proportionally with increasing MMT score group (p = 0.032, MS = 207.54, F = 3.75). The differences in MVC values was only statistically significant between score groups 3 and 5. A weak correlation (R = 0.4, MVC = –2.54 + 4.50 MMT, p < 0.01) was found between measured MVCs and the MMT score groups. CONCLUSIONS:In pediatric research studies, instrumental MVC should be preferred over MMT scoring. Also, MMT score groups higher than 3 should be modified in clinical testing of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy.
Keywords: Physical examination, maximum voluntary contraction, muscle strength, electromyography
