Measurement of Proprioception of the Knee in Hemiplegic Patients Using an Isokinetic Dynamometer

Hwang, Ji Sun; Lee, Dong Seok; Cho, Yun Jeong; Han, Na Mi; Kim, Hyun Dong

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To measure knee joint proprioception quantitatively in hemiplegic patients after brain injury using an isokinetic dynamometer. METHOD: Thirty healthy subjects and 24 hemiplegic patients participated in this study. Joint position sense was evaluated with passive angle reproduction of 30degrees and 60degrees of knee flexion and kinesthesia was evaluated with the threshold for detection of passive movementfrom 45degrees of knee flexion. We used toe-"up or down"-test for conventional clinical method.
RESULTS
Significant proprioceptive deficit was observed not only in paretic knees of both right and left hemiplegic patients (p<0.05) but also in nonparetic knee in right hemiplegic patients (p<0.05). Both interrater and intrarater reliability of the quantitative measurement were significantly high. A significant difference was found between proprioception deficit defined with current clinical test and quantitative test in the nonparetic knee (p<0.05), but not in the paretic knee (p>0.05).
CONCLUSION
The quantitative test using an isokinetic dynamometer is a reliable method to measure knee proprioception, and it is possible to detect proprioceptive deficit in hemiplegic patients. Conventional clinical assessments are poor for predicting the results of the quantitative measure in the nonparetic knee. This quantitative method may be useful in diagnosis and follow-up of knee proprioception of hemiplegic patients after brain injury.