CP - Assessment & Classification Flashcards
What is cerebral palsy?
- Group of disorders of the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitation
- Attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing foetal or infant brain
What are the motor disorders of CP often accompanied by?
Disturbances of sensation, cognition, communication, perception, and/or behaviour, and/or by a seizure disorder
What is the epidemiology of CP?
- Most common physical disability in childhood
- 600-700 children born with CP in Aus each year
- 2-2.5 per 1000 live births
What is the relationship between CP & premature delivery?
- % of children with CP born premi has remained constant
- But increased survival rates of very preterm babies
What are the different causes of CP?
- Prenatal (75%): Brain malformations, vascular insult, maternal infections
- Perinatal (6-9%): Hypoxia, neonatal encephalopathy, HIE
- Post natal (9-10%): ABI, vascular event, infections
What are the risk factors for CP?
- Prematurity
- Multiple birth
- Genetic background
What are the positive features of UMN syndrome?
- Increased proprioceptive reflexes producing spasticity
- Increased cutaneous reflexes producing flexor and extensor spasms & the Babinski response
What are the negative features of UMN syndrome?
- Paralysis
- Weakness
- Loss of dexterity
What are the characteristics of the functional deficits associated with damage to the immature brain?
- Reflect the neural lesion
- Impacted by the changing state of multiple systems due to growth and development
- Determined by what has been practised and achieved
What are the typical features of CP?
- Delay in achievement of motor milestones
- Atypical skill development not just a delay with abnormalities of posture and movement
- Secondary impact on musculoskeletal system due to change in forces acting on the growing child e.g. spasticity, weight bearing alignment which further impact movement and posture
What are the abnormalities of posture & movement in CP?
- Insufficient force generation
- Spasticity, increased reflexes
- Abnormal extensibility (usually hypo- but can have hyper-)
- Poor selective control with inability to activate specific muscle without moving the whole limb
- Poor regulation of activity in muscle groups in anticipation of postural changes & body movement leading to co-contraction of agonist and antagonist
- Decreased ability to learn unique movements
How was CP previously classified?
- Level of disability
- Area of body affected (hemiplegia, diplegia, quadriplegia, monoplegia, triplegia)
- Type of movement disorder (spastic, athetoid, dystonic, ataxic, hypotonic)
What are the current classification & assessment tools for CP?
- Gross Motor Function Classification Scale (GMFCS)
- Functional Mobility Scale (FMS)
- Gait Classifications: Hemiplegia and Diplegia
- Spasticity Measures: Tardieu, Australian Spasticity Assessment Scale (ASAS, Hypertonia Assessment Tool (HAT)
- Cerebral Palsy Check-Up (CPUP)
What are the features of the GMFCS?
- Summarises severity of disability in terms of function
- 5 components: Lying/rolling, sitting, crawling/kneeling, standing, walking/running/jumping
- Quantitative only
What are the features of the FMS?
- Measure of independent mobility