Motor System Testing Flashcards
What does the spastic hemiparesis gait look like?
- Unilateral upper motor neuron disease
- Arm flexed
- Leg outward and forward often with dragging toe
What does the scissor gait look like?
- Spastic paresis bilateral legs
- Thighs cross each other
What does the stoppage gait look like?
- Lower motor neuron disease
- Usually foot drop
- Feet are lifted high with flexed knees
- Feet slap floor
What does sensory ataxia gait look like?
- Loss of position sense in legs
- Gait is unsteady and wide base
- Feet are lifted high and slapped
What does the cerebellar gait look like?
- Staggering unsteady
- Widebased gait
- Difficulty turning
What does the Parkinsonian gait look like?
- Basal ganglia defects
- Posture stoked
- Hips and knees flexed
- Short shuffling steps
- Turns all in one piece
What are fasiculations?
- Visible twitching muscle bundle movements
*signs of lower motor neuron disease
What are tremors
Involuntary rhythmic movements that may be more pronounced at rest
What are tics?
Repetitive muscle twitching
*brief, repetitive, stereotyped, coordinated movements occurring at irregular intervals
What is chorea?
- Involuntary movements
- Rapid, jerky, irregular, unpredictable
What is athetosis
Abnormal muscle contractions causing involuntary writhing movements
What is myoclonus
- Involuntary
- Sudden very rapid unpredictable jerks, faster than Chorea
What is asterixis
Involuntary brief loss of hand and finger muscles resulting in flapping of hands
*indicate encephalopathy
*unilateral indicates structural disease on contralateral side of brain
When does Babinski sign disappear?
Around 24 months
What is a decorticate rigidity
Arms/elbows are in a flexed position
What are intention tremors?
Tremors that are absent at rest, appear with movement and often get worse as the target gets closer
Patient is unable to maintain abduction of their fingers- which nerve is involved?
Ulnar nerve
What is spasticity?
Velocity-dependent increased tone that worsens at extremes of range
What is dysmetria?
Difficulty with complex movements needing coordination
What is hemiplegia?
- One side paralysis
*leg lies externally rotated
*arm is flaccid
What is decerebrate rigidity?
- Jaws are clenched
- Neck is extended
- Arms are adducted and stiffly extended at the elbows with forearms pronated, wrists and fingers flexed
- Feet are plantar flexed
What will happen to the face if there is a peripheral lesion of CN VII?
- Eye will not close, eyeball rolls up
- Flat nasolabial fold
- Forehead will not wrinkle, eyebrow will not raise
- There will be paralysis of lower face
What will happen to the face if there is a central lesion of CN VII?
- Eye will close (slight weakness)
- Flat nasolabial fold
- Forehead wrinkled, eyebrow will raise
- There will be paralysis of lower face
What are postural tremors?
- These tremors appear when the affected part is actively maintaining a posture
What are resting (static) tremors?
- These tremors are prominent at rest and may decrease or disappear with voluntary movement
What does a positive pronator drift mean?
- There is a lesion in the corticospinal tract in the contralateral hemisphere
What is hemiparesis?
Weakness on one side of the body
What is hemiplegia?
Paralysis on one side of the body
What is paraplegia?
Paralysis of the legs
what is damaged if there is wrist and finger extensor weakness?
- Peripheral radial nerve damage
What is damaged if there is weak abduction of the thumb?
Median nerve disorders
What is dysdiadochokinesis?
Type of cerebellar disease
1. There will be slow irregular, and clumsy movements instead of
*quick alternating movements
What can walking on toes and heels reveal?
A distal leg weakness
What does having the inability to heel walk mean?
Test for corticospinal tract damage
If someone has cerebellar ataxia what will happen during the Romberg test?
- Standing with eyes open (negative Romberg test)
- Standing with eyes loses (positive Romberg test)
What is analgesia
Absence of pain sensation
What is hypalgesia?
Decreased sensitivity to pain
What is hyperalgesia?
Increased pain sensitivity
What is anesthesia?
Absence of touch sensation
What is hypesthesia?
Decreased sensitivity to touch
What is hyperesthesia?
Increased sensitivity to touch
What is the first sensation lost in peripheral neuropathy?
Vibration
What is a positive Babinski sign?
Dorsiflexion of the big toes
*there is a lesion affecting the corticospinal tract
What is a positive brudzinki sign?
Flexion of both the hips and knees
*happens when the neck gets flexed
What is a positive kernig sign?
There will be pain and increased resistance to knee extension
