ArticleFrontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology2020
Movement History Influences Pendulum Test Kinematics in Children With Spastic Cerebral Palsy.
Article in Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Objective assessment of spasticity by pendulum test: a systematic review on methods of implementation and outcome measures.Biomedical engineering online · 2020Pooled it
- Cross-bridge model for predicting muscle short-range stiffness during movement.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Immediate Effects of Transcutaneous Spinal Stimulation on Stretch-Induced Spasticity in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Increased coactivation during clinical tests of spasticity is associated with increased coactivation during reactive standing balance control in cerebral palsy.Journal of neurophysiology · 2025Article
- Applicability of the Instrumented Pendulum Test for Assessing Limb Viscoelastic Properties in Neurological and Internal Diseases: A Narrative Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Identification of Neural and Non-Neural Origins of Joint Hyper-Resistance Based on a Novel Neuromechanical Model.IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society · 2024Article
- The sensorimotor system modulates muscular co-contraction relative to visuomotor feedback responses to regulate movement variability.Journal of neurophysiology · 2023Article
- Perspective on musculoskeletal modelling and predictive simulations of human movement to assess the neuromechanics of gait.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Effects of Functional Electrical Stimulation Cycling of Different Duration on Viscoelastic and Electromyographic Properties of the Knee in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury.Brain sciences · 2020Article
- Neuromechanical Assessment of Activated vs. Resting Leg Rigidity Using the Pendulum Test Is Associated With a Fall History in People With Parkinson's Disease.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The pendulum test assesses quadriceps spasticity by dropping the lower leg of a relaxed patient from the horizontal position and observing limb movement. The first swing excursion (FS) decreases with increasing spasticity severity. Our recent simulation study suggests that the reduced initial swing results from muscle short-range stiffness and its interaction with reflex hyper-excitability. Short-range stiffness emerges from the thixotropic behavior of muscles where fiber stiffness upon stretch increases when the muscle is held isometric. Fiber stiffness might thus be higher during the first swing of the pendulum test than during consecutive swings. In addition, it has recently been suggested that muscle spindle firing reflects fiber force rather than velocity and therefore, reflex activity might depend on fiber stiffness. If this hypothesized mechanism is true, we expect to observe larger first swing excursions and reduced reflex muscle activity when the leg is moved rather than kept isometric before release, especially in patients with increased reflex activity. We performed the pendulum test in 15 children with cerebral palsy (CP) and 15 age-matched typically developing (TD) children in two conditions. In the hold condition, the leg was kept isometric in the extended position before release. In the movement condition, the leg was moved up and down before release to reduce the contribution of short-range stiffness. Knee kinematics and muscle activity were recorded. Moving the leg before release increased first swing excursion (
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