Abstract
The relative effectiveness of two different electrotherapies for hand rehabilitation was measured in 18 patients with muscle atrophy associated with rheumatoid arthritis, three of whom acted as controls and receiving no electrotherapy during the course of the trial. Both forms of electrotherapy were applied for between one and three hours each day for ten weeks. In the first electrotherapy, the stimuli were presented in a uniform pattern at a frequency of 10 stimuli/second (10 Hz). The electrotherapy for comparison (eutrophic electrotherapy) reproduced as stimuli the natural action potential firing pattern of a fatigue resistant motor unit in the first dorsal interosseus (1 st DI) of a normal hand.
Comparison was based on the relative improvement during and following 10 weeks of electrotherapy, with the two patterns of electrotherapy in seven different parameters of hand function: angular deviation at 1 st MCP joint in ulnar drift; hand grip strength; pulp-to-pulp pinch strength; key pinch strength; button-unbutton test; the maximal voluntary force 1 st DI could produce when acting isometrically; and in abduction, the endurance shown by 1 st DI in generating such force.
In all the parameters measured, eutrophic elecrotherapy was seen to be significantly more effective than a uniform patterned electrotherapy of 10 Hz. The greatest comparative effect of eutrophic electrotherapy was seen on endurance in force generation by 1 st DI and on hand grip strength, and the least on the reduction of the angular deviation of ulnar drift.
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