Usefulness of a Qualitative Ultrasound Evaluation of the Gastrocnemius-Soleus Complex with the Heckmatt Scale for Clinical Practice in Cerebral Palsy.
Ultrasound is increasingly used for the evaluation of spastic muscles in cerebral palsy. Increased echo intensity is considered indicative of a muscle fibrous involution. The aim of this study was to highlight any correlation between increased echo intensity of the gastrocnemius-soleus complex and clinical tests for stiffness evaluation, age and functional level measured with the Gross Motor Function Classification System. We used the qualitative echo intensity grading system of the Heckmatt scale (HS) and tested its inter-rater reliability. The study group comprised 60 patients with cerebral palsy. We found a weak significant correlation between HS scores and clinical stiffness measures and between HS and age for all muscles studied, and between the HS and Gross Motor Function Classification System only for the soleus muscle. The study indicated moderate inter-rater reliability, with κ values between 0.60 and 0.73, for almost all muscles studied. Ultrasound provides a useful complementary survey of stiffness tests in cerebral palsy.
['Battisti|Nicoletta|N|', 'Milletti|David|D|', 'Miceli|Marco|M|', 'Zenesini|Corrado|C|', 'Cersosimo|Antonella|A|']
D002547:Cerebral Palsy D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D018482:Muscle, Skeletal D015203:Reproducibility of Results D012720:Severity of Illness Index D014463:Ultrasonography
Cerebral palsy Echo intensity Stiffness Soleus muscle Clinical decision support systems Gastrocnemius muscle Gastrocnemius–soleus complex Ultrasonography