DIAGNOSTIC APPROACH TO THE MUSCULAR HYPOTONIA: CLINICAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Аннотация

Identifying the underlying cause of muscle hypotonia remains difficult, despite advances in diagnostic laboratories and imaging techniques. Clinical assessment strategies and standardised developmental tests can help to differentiate between hypotonia resulting from a primary lesion of the upper motoneurons and hypotonia of the lower motoneurons and motor units. This is particularly important in young children. This review outlines and describes the components of clinical assessment: a detailed paediatric and family history, clinical methods and characteristics to differentiate between peripheral and central hypotonia, and clinical assessment. Recent studies that have contributed to the differential diagnosis of muscular hypotension are reviewed and directions for future research are given. Ideally, assessment of infants with muscle hypotonia is best performed by an interdisciplinary team of developmental specialists, including paediatric neurologists, paediatricians, medical geneticists and physiotherapists.