Erschienen in:
European Journal of Neurology, 6 (1999) S4
Sprache:
Englisch
DOI:
10.1111/j.1468-1331.1999.tb00038.x
ISSN:
1351-5101;
1468-1331
Entstehung:
Anmerkungen:
Beschreibung:
Lower‐limb spasticity is one of the main features of advanced multiple sclerosis (MS), and botulinum toxin type A (BTX‐A) is known to be effective in the treatment of lower‐limb spasticity. Two hundred randomly selected MS outpatients were analysed for spasticity using clinical scores. Of the 200 randomly selected MS outpatients, 23% had marked or severe spasticity. Hence, the aims of this study were to investigate the effect of BTX‐A injections in MS patients with lower‐limb spasticity refractory to conventional treatment, and to evaluate the new method of spasmography for analysing muscle tone. Fifteen MS patients (mean MS duration, 11.2 years) with spasticity of the lower limbs were injected with BTX‐A (BOTOX®) into the affected muscles. A control group of 15 healthy volunteers was analysed by spasmography. In the 15 MS patients, the Modified Ashworth Scale scores for the left and right legs were significantly lower than baseline values (P < 0.05) at 3 and 6 weeks post‐treatment. At 6 weeks post‐treatment, the spasmography measures (n= 12) of mean muscle tone and mean maximum muscle tone of both legs in passive mode were significantly reduced (P < 0.05) compared with baseline. The time to walk 10 m (n = 9) was significantly reduced compared with baseline (P < 0.05) at 3 and 6 weeks post‐treatment. No adverse events were reported for any patients treated with BTX‐A. These data indicate that BTX‐A is effective and safe in the treatment of lower‐limb spasticity, and that spasmography is a useful method for assessing therapeutic intervention in Spasticity.