Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 20, 2026

Screening People on Standing Balance with Romberg Testing and Walking Balance with Tandem Walking
06:28

Screening People on Standing Balance with Romberg Testing and Walking Balance with Tandem Walking

Published on: September 1, 2023

Reliability of the three-dimensional pendulum test for able-bodied children and children diagnosed with cerebral

Hank White1, Tim L Uhl, Sam Augsburger

  • 1Motion Analysis Laboratory, Shriners Hospital for Children, 1900 Richmond Road, Lexington, KY 40502, USA. hwhite@shrinenet.org

Gait & Posture
|September 12, 2006
PubMed

Insights

The pendulum test reliably measures quadriceps spasticity in children with cerebral palsy (CP). This study found high test-retest reliability, indicating it

Area of Science:

  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Pediatric Neurology
  • Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

  • Cerebral palsy (CP) often involves spasticity affecting motor function.
  • Objective assessment of spasticity is crucial for treatment and management in children with CP.
  • The pendulum test is a potential tool for evaluating muscle spasticity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare the test-retest reliability of pendulum test variables in children with CP versus able-bodied children.
  • To investigate kinematic differences in knee motion between these groups.
  • To determine the clinical utility of the pendulum test for assessing quadriceps spasticity in pediatric CP.

Main Methods:

  • Prospective study involving 10 children with CP and 10 able-bodied children (mean age 13 years).
  • Three-dimensional motion analysis system used for data collection on two separate occasions (73+/-28 days apart).
  • Calculation and comparison of thirteen variables from the pendulum test, including angular velocity and integrals of motion.

Main Results:

  • High to very high test-retest reliability (ICC 0.60-0.98) observed for pendulum test variables in both groups.
  • Children with CP showed significantly slower maximum angular velocity (202 vs. 293 degrees/s) and earlier time to maximum velocity (0.22 vs. 0.34s) compared to controls.
  • Able-bodied children exhibited twice the integrals of motion in the sagittal plane compared to children with CP (p<0.01).

Conclusions:

  • The pendulum test demonstrates high test-retest reliability for assessing quadriceps spasticity in children with cerebral palsy.
  • Significant kinematic differences exist in knee motion between children with CP and able-bodied children.
  • The pendulum test is a reliable and objective method for evaluating spasticity in pediatric CP.

More Related Videos

A Standardized Method for Measurement of Elbow Kinesthesia07:56

A Standardized Method for Measurement of Elbow Kinesthesia

Published on: October 10, 2020

Related Concept Videos

Physical Pendulum01:06

Physical Pendulum

When a rigid body is hanging freely from a fixed pivot point and is displaced, it oscillates similar to a simple pendulum and is known as a physical pendulum. The period and angular frequency of a physical pendulum are obtained by using the small-angle approximation and drawing parallels with a spring-mass system. The small-angle approximation (sinθ=θ) is valid up to about 14°.
When dealing with complicated systems, the mass moment of inertia is an important parameter, as it describes the mass...
Simple Pendulum01:10

Simple Pendulum

A simple pendulum consists of a small diameter ball suspended from a string, which has negligible mass but is strong enough to not stretch. In our daily life, pendulums have many uses, such as in clocks, on a swing set, and on a sinker on a fishing line.
The period of a simple pendulum depends on two factors: its length and the acceleration due to gravity. The period is completely independent of any other factors, such as mass or maximum displacement. For small displacements, a pendulum is...
Torsional Pendulum01:09

Torsional Pendulum

A torsional pendulum involves the oscillation of a rigid body in which the restoring force is provided by the torsion in the string from which the rigid body is suspended. Ideally, the string should be massless; practically, its mass is much smaller than the rigid body's mass and is neglected.
As long as the rigid body's angular displacement is small, its oscillation can be modeled as a linear angular oscillation. The amplitude of the oscillation is an angle. The role of mass is played by the...