Supporting clinical evaluation of upper limb spasticity with quantitative data measurement in accordance to the Modified Ashworth Scale

Rehabilitation process for patients with spasticity must go through experienced physicians and therapists to avoid injuries and to maximize the rehabilitation session for the sake of the patients' improvement. To have experience and good skills, therapist trainees need to learn from the experienced clinicians. However, it becomes crucial to transfer the knowledge from the professional clinicians to the therapist trainees. Therefore it is important to be able to visualize the characteristics of spasticity quantitatively in order to support the learning process of therapist trainees. Four patients with varying spasticity levels were involved in this clinical data collection of upper limb spasticity. The clinical procedure involved repeated movements of arm extension and flexion, performed by an experienced clinician. The clinician evaluated the spasticity levels through the conventional manual methods of clinical skills and judgment. The clinical data was also collected via a digital goniometer and manual muscle tester (MMT), connected to a DAQ (product of National Instruments) and recorded using LabVIEW. The data was analyzed to investigate the pattern of each spasticity level according to the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS). The result of this research will help the therapist trainees to better understand and obtain a clear image of the spasticity stiffness pattern based on the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) level.