[Characteristics of the reflex to stretching in spinal cord injury]

This work is aimed at ascertaining the correlation in the state of spinal cord reflex apparatus in spinal patients with the presence or absence of clonus. The value of electrical response of m. Soleus to passive flexion of the foot at different speed was studied. Clonus was observed in 10 patients (the first group), and absent in 12 (the second group). Ten normal persons served as controls. The curves of the response value distribution displayed a marked difference in individual test groups. The first group was characterized by the mode shift to the right, and the second group--to the left, in comparison with the control. This was true of all angular speeds tested. The threshold speed proved to be statistically significantly increased in the second group as compared with the normal; in the first group it was about the normal. The activity in the shin muscle and the capacity to move and even to walk was observed in the majority of the patients of the first group and only in a few patients of the second group. The data obtained showed that in patients with clonus the state of the spinal cord reflex apparatus was more normalized and the clinical condition was better than in those without clonus.