Use of clinical measures to document the effect of passive cycling on knee extensor spasticity and the ability to perform activities of daily living in spinal cord injury: a case report.

The effects, on spasticity-related clinical measure results [initial knee flexion velocity during the pendulum test (F1-VEL); Spinal Cord Injury Spasticity Evaluation Tool (SCI-SET) scores], of a 5-week passive cycling program were assessed in a 67-year-old man with chronic, complete, thoracic-level SCI. Three weekly evaluations were performed before and after training, at the start, middle, and end of the training (ET), and 24 h following ET. The F1-VEL increased significantly from baseline, from ET to the 2-week follow-up evaluation. A trend was found for an improvement from baseline in SCI-SET scores, from middle of training onwards. These findings, which can inform clinical decisions and clinical trial development, suggest that the F1-VEL pendulum test result may be used to document the effect on knee extensor spasticity of a passive cycling program in chronic, complete, thoracic-level SCI. Whether this is also true for the SCI-SET requires future confirmation.