MUSCLE LENGTH EFFECT ON THE PENDULUM TEST

Objective: An investigation of the effect of the length of knee extens or muscles on the pendulum test. Design: Descriptive. Statistical anal ysis utilized analysis of variance with planned comparisons. Setting: Community clubs and a stroke rehabilitation unit. Participants: Twenty subjects aged 54 to 83yrs, more than 6 weeks after stroke, and 31 hea lthy subjects aged 60 to 79yrs. Outcome Measures: Two tests: pendulum test and knee extensor muscle length test. Results: For both affected and intact legs, stroke subjects had significantly smaller angle of re versal (p < .001), peak angular velocity (p < .001), and maximum passi ve knee flexion (p < .001) than healthy subjects. When angle of revers al was normalized for passive knee flexion, there were no significant differences between healthy and stroke subjects. There were no signifi cant differences in any variable between the intact and affected legs of the stroke subjects. Conclusion: Soft tissue changes, rather than h yperreflexia, may explain the decreased angle of reversal and peak ang ular velocity in the stroke subjects studied. (C) 1998 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physi cal Medicine and Rehabilitation.