Red Flags for Motor Dysfunction Flashcards
1
Q
What are red flags for cerebellar dysfunction?
A
- Ataxic movements impeding a patient’s ability to bring a cup or spoon to the mouth without spilling
- Over- or undershooting when reaching for items in a closet
- Wide-based staggering gait during functional activities
- Noted nystagmus with functional complaints of dizziness, diplopia, and difficulty reading and writing
- Inability or difficulty applying makeup secondary to intension tremors
- Difficulty or inability to clap hands
- Hypertonia or hypotonia
- Broken or slurred speech
2
Q
What are red flags for basal ganglia dysfunction?
A
- Pill rolling or tremor-like movement at rest
- Difficulty bringing eating utensils to the mouth or both hands to the face for grooming activities, secondary to UE rigidity
- Inability to initiate voluntary movement
- Increased time noted to perform motor components of self-care or mobility due to bradykinesia
- Jerky movement inhibiting fine and gross motor tasks
3
Q
What are red flags for brainstem dysfunction?
A
- Complaints of vertigo
- Loss of balance during seated and standing ADL tasks
- Diplopia or disconjugate gaze
- Flaccidity of an extremity
- Spasticity of an extremity
- Inability to perform bed mobility secondary to extensor tonal patterns
- Difficulty performing anterior weight shifts secondary to extensor tone dominance
- Hypertonicity with yawning and coughing
- Associated reactions
4
Q
What are red flags for the primary motor area?
A
- Inability to voluntarily move the involved extremity
- Spasticity
5
Q
What are red flags for motor tract dysfunction?
A
- Inability to initiate and carry out a desired movement
- Decreased visual scanning, binocular vision, and diplopia
- Difficulty swallowing
- Dysarthric speech
- Inability to coordinate head and neck movements during reaching, scanning, and ADL performance
- Difficulty ambulating on uneven terrain secondary to loss of balance
- Inability or difficulty transitioning from bending to retrieve low items to returning to a normal midline trunk position in sitting
- Inability to maintain head in a neutral position or hold head up against gravity
6
Q
What are red flags for frontal lobe dysfunction?
A
- Inability to correctly select or use eating utensils secondary to apraxia
- Inability to perform grooming and hygiene tasks secondary to incorrect utensil use (or apraxia)
7
Q
What is the pathway of neural messages from the cortex to muscles?
A
Primary motor cortex > Internal capsule > Thalamus > Brainstem > Spinal cord > Ventral horn of spinal cord > Ventral rootlets > Ventral root > Skeletal muscle