Spasticity

Definition: Spasticity

Spasticity

Noun

1. The quality of moving or acting in spasms.

Domain	Definition
Health	A state of hypertonicity, or increase over the normal tone of a muscle, with heightened deep tendon reflexes. (references)
Medicine	Strongly marked hypertonicity of muscles. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Spasticity is a disorder of the body's motor system in which certain muscles are continuously contracted. This contraction causes stiffness or tightness of the muscles and may interfere with gait, movement, and speech. Spasticity is usually caused by damage to the portion of the brain or spinal cord that controls voluntary movement. It may occur in association with spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, anoxic brain damage, brain trauma, severe head injury, some metabolic diseases such as adrenoleukodystrophy, and phenylketonuria. Symptoms may include hypertonicity (increased muscle tone), clonus (a series of rapid muscle contractions), exaggerated deep tendon reflexes, muscle spasms, scissoring (involuntary crossing of the legs), and fixed joints. The degree of spasticity varies from mild muscle stiffness to severe, painful, and uncontrollable muscle spasms. The condition can interfere with rehabilitation in patients with certain disorders, and often interferes with daily activities.

Is there any treatment?

Treatment may include such medications as baclofen, diazepam, or clonazepam; muscle stretching, range of motion exercises, and other physical therapy regimens to help prevent joint contractures (shrinkage or shortening of a muscle) and reduce the severity of symptoms; or surgery for tendon release or to sever the nerve-muscle pathway.

What is the prognosis?

The prognosis for those with spasticity depends on the severity of the spasticity and the associated disorder(s). To a small degree spasticity performs the helpful role of exercise, but it is usually bothersome to normal activities in life.

What research is being done?

The NINDS supports research on brain and spinal cord disorders that can cause spasticity. The goals of this research are to increase scientific understanding about these disorders and to find ways to prevent, treat, and cure them.

References

"Other Complications of Spinal Cord Injury: Spasticity." (Louis Calder Memorial Library of the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, October 3, 2002), http://calder.med.miami.edu/pointis/spasticity.html
"William and Spackman's Occupational Therapy 9th Edition." ed. Maureen E. Neistadt and Elizabeth Blesedell Crepeau (Lippincott-Raven Publishers, 1998), 233. ISBN 0-397-55192-4

Some of this article contains text from the public domain document at http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/spasticity_doc.htm

Crosswords: Spasticity

English words defined with "spasticity": paroxysmal trepidant abasia ♦ spinocerebellar disorder. (references)

Specialty definitions using "spasticity": Baclofen ♦ Dantrolene ♦ hypertonia ♦ Paraparesis, Spastic. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Clinical Evaluation and Management of Spasticity (reference) Diseases Explained: Spasticity Wall Chart (reference) Parenteral Drug Therapy in Spasticity and Parkinson's Disease (New Trends in Clinical Neurology Series) (reference) Spasticity, disordered motor control (reference) The Origin and Treatment of Spasticity (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Several factors may contribute to spasticity. (references)
		Baclofen and tizanidine may reduce spasticity. (references)
		Generally, the primary feature is severe, progressive, lower extremity spasticity. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Spasticity" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.70% of the time. "Spasticity" is used about 77 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	98.7%	76	38,217
Noun (common)	1.3%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	77	N/A

Expression using "spasticity": Muscle Spasticity. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "spasticity"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Arabic		‏الشلل التشنجي. (various references)

Danish		spasticitet (muscle rigidity). (various references)

Dutch		spasticiteit. (various references)

French		spasticité, spasmodicité, paralysie spasmodique. (various references)

German		Spastizität, Spastizität, spastische Symptomenkomplex, Spastik. (various references)

Italian		spasticit� , spasticità. (various references)

Pig Latin		asticityspay

Portuguese		espasticidade. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Words rhyming with "spasticity" (pronounced 'Spas*tic"i*ty'): Ability, Abnormality, Abnormity, Aboriginality, Absorbability, Absorptivity, Abstrusity, Absurdity, Accendibility, Accentuality, Acceptability, Accessibility, Accidentality, Acclivity, Accomplicity, Accountability, Acerbity, Acetosity, Achromaticity, Acidity, Acquirability, Acrity, Activity, Actuality, Actuosity, Acuity, Addibility, Admirability, Admiralty, Admissibility, Adorability, Aduncity, Adverbiality, Adversity, Advisability, Aeriality, Affability, Affectibility, Agaty, Agility, Agreeability, Alacrity, Alamodality, Aldermanity, Algidity, Alibility, Alienability, Alkalinity, Allotropicity, Alterability. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-i-i-p-s-s-t-t-y"
	-2 letters: cystitis, styptics.
	-3 letters: spastic, statics, styptic, tipcats, typists.
	-4 letters: aspics, attics, atypic, pastis, scatts, scatty, spaits, spicas, static, tipcat, typist.
	-5 letters: apsis, aspic, aspis, attic, casts, catty, cissy, cists, cysts, pacts, pasts, pasty, patsy, patty, picas, pitas, satis, sayst, scats, scatt, spacy, spait, spats, spays, spica, spics, spicy, spits, stats, stays, tacit, tacts, tapis.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-i-i-p-s-s-t-t-y"
	+2 letters: psychiatrist.
	+3 letters: psychiatrists.
	+4 letters: antipsychotics, astrophysicist.
	+5 letters: antisyphilitics, astrophysicists, nonpsychiatrist, sophisticatedly, superplasticity.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Expression	Frequency per Day
spasticity	71
botox spasticity	15
mechanism spasticity	8
physiopathology spasticity	8
muscle spasticity	4
controlling spasticity	3
real spasticity video	2
spasticity treatment	2
spasticity thesis	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Spasticity

Definition: Spasticity

Spasticity

Noun

Specialty Definition: Spasticity

Health

Medicine

Specialty Definition: Spasticity

References

Crosswords: Spasticity

Commercial Usage: Spasticity

Books

Non-Fiction Usage: Spasticity

Health

Usage Frequency: Spasticity

Expression: Spasticity

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Spasticity

spasticity

botox spasticity

mechanism spasticity

physiopathology spasticity

muscle spasticity

controlling spasticity

real spasticity video

spasticity treatment

spasticity thesis

Modern Translation: Spasticity

Arabic

Danish

Dutch

French

German

Italian

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Rhyming with "Spasticity"

Anagrams: Spasticity

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

INDEX