The Effects of Low-Intensity Cutaneous Electrical Stimulation on Hypertonia in Hemiparetic Stroke

Hypertonia, the increase of muscle tone as a result of upper motor neuron lesions, is a long-lasting effect of stroke and affects over 12 million people worldwide. Living with hypertonia can significantly reduce a person’s quality of life and impair their mobility. In the last few years, the viability of electrical stimulation therapy for reducing spasticity has grown. One study found that low-intensity electrical stimulation applied on the skin induced significant reductions in peak torque response in both flexors and extensors (i.e upper extremity spasticity) in nine hemiparetic stroke subjects (Dewald et al., 1996). This research aims to investigate the effects of low-intensity cutaneous electrical stimulation treatments on hypertonia in multiple patients. In early stages of this study done in previous years, only data from one patient was utilized. Our research analyzed data from two more patients to see if the overall data has a constant trend. This data was collected by measuring the hypertonia of participant 1 (N1) while they were sitting relaxed for 10 minutes with the arm fully supported before and after applying low-intensity electrical stimulation to the skin over the biceps muscle (20Hz, 0.1ms pulse duration, for 10 minutes). Overall, there has been a constant trend of hypertonia decreasing with the use of electrical stimulation treatments.