Muscle tone is muscle tension during complete relaxation of a person. This helps maintain the posture, finding the internal organs in a certain position and receiving the body of certain poses.
In the case of increased muscle tone( hypertonicity), muscles are constantly strained. This leads to pain, movement is constrained. There are secondary changes in muscles and joints. Hypertonus indicates that the nervous system is damaged.
Causes of a disorder
Increased muscle tone can occur with:
- diseases of blood vessels and heart, which damage the central nervous system;
- congenital abnormalities of the central nervous system;
- craniocerebral trauma, in which the brain or spinal cord is damaged;
- demyelinating diseases.
Changes that occur with a mental and emotional state, do not have a significant effect on muscle tone increase.
Types and causes of increased tonus
In the spastic form of hypertonia, the nerve centers and motor ways are affected, it is not distributed to all muscle groups, but selectively. Spasticity leads to the occurrence of speech difficulties, difficulty in movement, pain in the muscles, involuntary crossing of the legs.
The reasons for this condition can be:
- Stroke .
- Children's cerebral palsy( cerebral palsy) .Hypertonus is not always an obligatory sign of this disease. Limbs can deform with time. Head injuries .Increased tone begins to develop through damage to the cerebellum, midbrain or its trunk. Stiffness or compression of the extremities occurs.
- Sclerosis of the .With multiple sclerosis, flexion and extensor spasticity can be observed. Legs can either straighten up or, conversely, be pressed against the body.
With a rigid( plastic) hypertension, all muscles spasm at the same time. It occurs if the brain or spinal cord is affected, poisoning with toxins, hypnosis. These factors lead to uncontrolled limb positions.
Features of the clinical picture
Increased muscle tone is easy to determine. He is accompanied by:
- appearance of stress in the body;
- lack of mobility;
- appearance of discomfort during the movement;
- stiffness and muscle spasms;
- spontaneous movements;
- increased tendon reflexes;
- spasmodic muscles relaxed slowly.
In the process of movement, the muscle tone increases, which leads to pain in the back and legs. Physical exercises and stresses contribute to the occurrence of temporary seizures and the pulling pain of certain muscles. A person feels stiff.
Repeated such conditions can mean the appearance of serious illnesses.
If the muscle spasticity has passed into a neglected form, then the muscle acquires a greater density. Any physical impact causes severe pain.
Features of infant hypertension
Lack of oxygen, fetal vitamins during pregnancy, trauma during childbirth and other causes can lead to hypertension in the newborn. However, even a normal pregnancy and childbirth can not guarantee that the child will not have increased muscle tone.
Often the stress passes when the child reaches a year and a half and is not a serious violation. Diagnosis of hypertension can only be a neurologist.
Reasons to alert parents:
- the child's sleep is disturbed;
- the baby becomes nervous constantly crying, while there is jittering of the chin;
- eats poorly, after eating food often spits up;
- when asleep, hands convulsively clenched arms and legs, throws back his head;
- began to hold the head at the age of up to one month( with muscular spasm of the neck and occiput);
- observed stiffness in the movements, when trying to remove hands and feet from the body, begins to cry;
- if you put the baby and at the same time keep it under your armpits, the kid sorts his legs, imitating the gait. A kid with hypertonia will become "tiptoe", while a healthy child will prop up on the entire foot.
To return the tone to the norm will help massage, medical baths, paraffin wrap and parental care. You can use aromatherapy and exercises on fitball.
In any case, when dangerous symptoms appear, it is necessary to consult a specialist, since hypertension indicates a more serious illness.
Diagnosis and therapy
If you have obvious symptoms of increased muscle tone, you need to urgently carry out a diagnosis. This will indicate a specific disease. For this purpose, specialists resort to:
- magnetic resonance imaging( MRI);
- electromyography( EMG) - study of the bioelectrical potential of the muscle with excited muscle fibers;
- a blood test is performed.
Treatment of increased muscle tone consists in overcoming the disease that causes hypertonia, as well as the removal of the symptoms of stress.
Complex treatment of muscle hypertonia is:
- medication therapy , which alleviates the symptoms of the disease, reduces spasms, facilitates the movement and
maintenance of activity, mainly resort to the help of muscle relaxants and neuroleptics; - with electrophoresis muscles relax, which helps to reduce the pain syndrome;
- medical gymnastics and postural exercises occupy one of the main places among the methods of treatment of hypertension;
- physical exercises , in which there is an alternation of relaxation and tension of muscles in conjunction with the massage of different muscle groups should be used in the initial stage of the disease;
- the becomes a popular massage for certain biological points ;
- in the process of rehabilitation will help psychotherapy ;
- operations in the brain and spinal cord , peripheral nerves and muscles are performed in extreme cases.
For prophylaxis it is necessary:
- use of postural hygiene;
- moderate exercise;
- stretching and relaxing muscles;
- drinking a lot of water;
- prophylactic application of physiotherapy and massage, the effect on the muscle of cold and heat, avoidance of stress.
Hypertonus requires long and complex treatment. Therefore, at the first manifestation it is necessary to immediately seek medical help.
