Motor and Sensory Examination

Kenneth Earl Dizon RN MAN EdD

 MOTOR SYSTEM:
GENERAL
There are five pattern of muscular weakness
1. Upper motor neurone (UMN) - increased tone,
increased reflexes, pyramidal pattern of weakness
(weak extensors in the arm, weak flexors in the leg.
2. Lower motor neuronr (LMN) – wasting fasciculation,
decreased tone and absent reflexes.
3. Muscle disease – wasting, decreased tone, impaired
or absent reflexes.
4. Neurmuscular junction – fatiguable weakness, normal
or decreased tone, normal reflexes.
5. Functional weakness – normal tone, normal reflexes
without wasting with erratic power.
WHAT TO DO
Look at the position of the patient overall
Look especially for a hemiplegic positioning, flexion of elbow and wrist with extension of knee
and ankle.

Look for wasting

Look for fasciculation
Test for tone
Test muscle groups in a systematic way for power
Test reflexes
 TONE
WHAT TO DO
Ensure the patient is relaxed, or at least distracted by conversation. Repeat each movement at
different speeds.

Arms
Take the hand as if to shake it and hold the forearm. First pronate and supinate the forearm.
Then roll the hand round at the wrist.
Hold the forearm and the elbow and move the arm through the full range of flexion and extension
at the elbow.

Legs

Tone at the knee

Put your hand behind the knee and lift it rapidly. Watch the heel. Hold the knee and ankle. Flex
and extend the knee.

Tone at the ankle

Hold the ankle and flex and dorsiflex the foot.
 Roll the knee
Roll the wrist

WHAT YOU FIND

• Normal: Slight resistance through whole range of movements. Heel will lift minimally off the
bed.
• Decreased tone: Loss of resistance through movement. Heel does not lift off bed when
knee is lifted quickly.
Marked loss of tone = flaccid.
• Increased tone:
- Resistance increases suddenly ('the catch') heel easily leaves bed when knee is lifted quickly –
spasticity.
- Increased through whole range, as if bending a lead pipe – lead pipe rigidity. Regular
intermittent break in tone through whole range – cogwheel rigidity.
- Patient apparently opposes your attempts to move his limb – Gegenhalten or paratonia.
Special situations
• Myotonia – slow relaxation following action.
• Dystonia – patient maintains posture at extreme or movement with contraction of agonist
and antagonist.
• Precussion myotonia may be demonstrated when a muscle dimples following percussion
with a patella hammer. Most commonly sought in abductor pollicis brevis and the tongue.

WHAT IT MEANS
• Flaccidity or reduced tone – common causes: lower motor nurone or cerebellar lesion;
rare causes: myopathies, 'spinal shock' (e.g. early after a stroke), chorea.

• Spasticity: upper motor lesion.

• Rigidity and cogwheel rigidity: extrapyramidal syndromes – common causes:

Parkinson's disease, phenothiazines.

• Myotonia (rare) – cause: myotonic dystrophy (associated with frontal balding, ptosis,
cataracts and cardiac conduction defects) and myotonica congenita. Percussion myotonia
may be found in both conditions.
 MOTOR SYSTEM:
ARMS

Testing shoulder abduction Testing elbow flexion

Testing elbow extension Testing finger extension

Testing finger abduction

Testing finger flexion
Testing finger abduction Testing thumb abduction
 Testing strength of supraspinatus

Testing strength of brachioradialis

 MOTOR SYSTEM:
LEGS

Testing hib extension

Testing hip flexion

 Testing knee extension Testing knee flexion

Testing plantarflexion of the foot

Testing dorsiflexion of the foot
Testing inversion of the foot Testing eversion of the foot
 MOTOR SYSTEM:
REFLEXS
Reflexes can be graded:

0 = absent
+ = present only wit reinforcement
1+ = present but depressed
2+ = normal
3+ = increased
4+ = clonus

Testing the
supinator reflex

Testing the biceps reflex

Testing the triceps reflex Testing the knee reflex
 Reinforcement

Reinforcement
If any reflex is unobtainable directly ask the patient to
perform a reinforcement manoeuvre. In the arms ask
the patient to clench his teeth as you swing the
hammer. In the legs ask the patient either to make a
fist, or to link hands across his chest and pull one
against the other, as you swing the hammer.

Demonstration of clonus
At the ankle: Dorsiflex the ankle briskly, maintain the foot
in that position, a rhythmic contraction may be found.
More than three beat is abnormal.
The ankle reflex – three ways to
At the knee: With the leg straight take the patella and get it
bring it briskly downwards; a rhythmic contraction
may be noted. Always abnormal.
WHAT YOU FIND AND WHAT IT MEANS

• Increased reflex or clonus – this indicates upper motor neurone lesion above the root at
that level.

• Absent reflexes:
- generalized – indicates peripheral neuropathy
- isolated – indicates either a peripheral nerve or, more commonly, a root lesion.

• Reduced reflexes (more difficult to judge) – occurs in a peripheral neuropathy, muscle

disease and cerebellar syndrome.

• Pendular reflex – this is usually best seen in the knee jerk where the reflex continues to
swing for several beats. This is associated with cerebellar disease.

• Slow relaxing reflex – this is especially seen at the ankle reflex and may be difficult to
note. It is associated with hypothyroidism.
WHAT IT MEANS

• Babinski's sign positive - indicates upper motor neurone lesion.

• Babinski's sign negative – normal.

• No response – may occur with profound upper motor neurone weakness (toe unable to
extend); may occur if there is a sensory abnormality interfering with the afferent part of the
reflex.
 SENSATION:
GENERAL
There are five modalities of sensation.

Sensory loss in the

hand: a. Medium (red
and ulnar (black)
nerves

Sensory loss in the

hand: b. redial nerve

Spinal cord section showing

sensory input (red) from and
motor output (black) to the right
(R) side
Sensory loss in the arm: C.
Axillary nerve

Sensory loss in the leg: a. Lateral cutaneous

nerve of the thigh; b. Common peroneal
Dermatomes in the arm
nerve; C. Femoral nerve d. Sciatic nerve
WHAT TO DO
Vibration sense
Use a 128 Hz tuning fork, those of higher frequency Potential sites for
(256 or 512 Hz) are not adequate. testing vibration
sense
Test – ask the patient to close his eyes, place the
tuning fork on the bony prominence, ask if he can
feel the vibration.

Check – Check the patient reports feeling the vibration

and not just the contact of the tuning fork. Strike
the tuning fork and stop it vibrating immediately
and repeat the test. If the patient reports that he
feels vibration, demonstrate the test again.

Joint position sense How to test joint

With the patient's eyes open show him what you are position sense
going to do. Hold the distal phalanx between your
two fingers. Ensuring that your fingers are at 90o
to the intended direction of movement, move the
digit, illustrating which is up and which is down.
Pin prick
Test – ask the patient to close his eyes then apply randomly sharp and blunt stimuli and note the
patient's response.

Light touch
Use a piece of cotton wool.
Test – ask the patient to close his eyes, test the areas as for pin prick, apply the stimulus at
random intervals.
Check – this is done by noting the timing of the response to the irregular stimuli. Frequently a
pause of 10-20 seconds may be useful.

Special situation
Sacral sensation – this is not usually screened. It is essential to test sacral sensation in any
patient with:
• Urinary or bowel symptoms
• Bilateral leg weakness
• Sensory loss in both legs
• Or where a cord conus medullaris or cauda equine lesion is considered.

Temperature sensation
Screening
It is usually adequate to ask a patient if the tuning fork feels cold when applied to the feet and
hands.

Formal testing
Fill a tube with warm water and cold water.
Other modalities
Two-point discrimination
This requires a two-point discriminator – a device like a blunted pair of compasses.

Test – gradually reduce distance between prongs, touching either with one or two
prongs. Note the setting at which the patient fails to distinguish one prong from two
prongs.
Check – random sequence of one or two prongs allows you to assess testing.

- Normal: index finger < 5mm; little finger < 7 mm; hallux < 10 mm.
N.B. Varies considerably according to skin thickness.
Compare right with left.
 WHAT YOU FIND

Patterns of sensory loss

Sensory deficits can be classified into eight levels of
the nervous system: Glove and stocking
loss
1. Single nerve
2. Root or roots
3. Peripheral nerve
4. Spinal cord
5. Brainstem
6. Thalamic sensory loss

Sensory loss associated with spinal

cord lesions: a. Complete transverse
lesion; b. Hemisection of the cord
f. Brainstem lesion;
g. Thalamic sensory loss
 CO-ORDINATION

WHAT TO DO
Test the gait
In all tests compare right with left. Expect the right
hand to be slightly better (in a right-handed person).

Arms
Finger-nose test

Legs
The finger –nose test
Heel – shin test

The heel-shin test

WHAT IT MEANS
• Unilateral inco-ordination – ipsilateral cerebellar syndrome.

• Bilateral inco-ordination – bilateral cerebellar syndrome.

• Truncal ataxia, gait ataxia, without limb inco-ordination – midline cerebellar

syndrome.

• Unilateral cerellar syndrome – common causes: demyelination, vascular

disease; rare causes: trauma, tumour or abscess.

• Bilateral cerebellar syndrome – common causes: drugs (anti-convulsants),

alcohol, demyelination, vascular disease; rare causes: hereditary cerebellar
degenerations, paraneoplastic disorders, hypothyroidism.

• Midline cerebellar syndrome: lesion of the cerebellar vermis – causes as for

bilateral cerebellar syndrome.
Cerebellr Ex
 GAIT
Always examine patient's gait. It is a co-ordinated action requiring integration of sensory and
motor functions. The gait may be the only abnormality on examination. The most
commonly seen are: hemiplegic, parkinsonian, marche a' petits pas, ataxic and unsteady
gaits.
Romberg's test is conveniently performed after examination the gait. This is a simple test
primarily of joint position sense.
Ask the patient to walk
Ensure you are able to see the arms and legs adeguately.
Is the gait symmetrical?
Gait can usually be divided into symmetrical and asymmetrical even though the symmetry is
not perfect.
If symmetrical:
Look at the size of paces
• Small or normal?
If small paces:
Look at the posture and arm swing
• Stooped with reduced armswing – parkinsonian (may be difficult to start and stop –
festinant).
• Upright with marked armswing – marche a' petits pas.
If normal paces:
Look at the lateral distance between the feet
• normal
• widely separated - broad based
• Legs unco-ordinated – cerebellar
• Crossing over, toes dragged – scissoring.
Look at the knees
• normal
• knees lifted high – high-stepping.
Look at the pelvis and shoulders
• normal
• marked rotation of pelvis and shoulder –waddling.
Look at the whole movement
• normal
• disjointed as if forgotten how to walk, patient frequently appears rooted to pot – apraxic.
• bizarre, elaborate and inconsistent – functional.

If asymmetrical
Is the patient in pain?
• yes – painful or antalgic gait.
Look for a bony deformity
• orthopaedic gait.
Does one leg swing out to the side?
• yes – hemiplegic gait.
Look at the knee heights
• normal
• one knee lifts higher – foot drop.
Ask the patient to walk as if on a tight – rope (demonstrate)
• if patient fall consistently – unsteady
• may fall predominantly to one side.
Ask the patient to walk on his heels (demonstrate)
• If unable to – foot drop.
Ask the patient to walk on his toes (demonstrate)
• If unable - weakness of gastrocnemius.

• Parkinsonian: indicates basal ganglion dysfunction – common causes: Parkinson's disease,

major tranquillisers.
• Scissoring: indicates spastic paraparesis – common causes: cerebral palsy, multiple
scelrosis, cord compression.
• Sensory ataxia: indicates loss of joint position sense (Romberg's positive) – common causes:
peripheral neuropathy, posterior column loss (see below).
• Cerebellar ataxia: veers towards side of lesion – common causes: drugs (e.g. phenytoin),
alcohol, multiple sclerosis, cerebrovascular disease.
• Waddling gait: indicates weak or ineffective proximal muscles – common causes: proximal
myopathies, bilateral cogenital dislocation of the hip.
• Apraxic gait: indicates the cortical integration of the movement is abnormal, usually with
frontal lobe pathology – common causes: normal pressure hydrocephalus, cerebrovascular
disease.
• Hemiplegic: unilateral upper motor neurone lesion – common causes: stroke, multiple
sclerosis.
• Foot drop: common causes – unilateral: common peroneal palsy, pyramidal lesion, L5
radiculopathy. Bilateral: peripheral neuropathy.

Non-neurological gaits
• Painful gait: common causes:arthritis, trauma – usually obvious.
• Orthopaedic gait: common causes: shortened limb, previous hip surgery, trauma.
 SUMMARY OF SCREENING
NEUROLOGICAL EXAMINATION
If the history reveals no suggestion of focal neurological deficit, no speech disturbance and no
disturbance of higher function, then you can use a screening neurological examination.

Screening neurological examination

• Pupils – direct and consensual reactions.
• Test fields to hand movements.
• Fundoscopy.
• Eye movements to pursuit on upgaze and lateral gaze.
• Facial sensation to light touch with finger tip in all three divisions of trigeminal.
• Facial movement – ‘screw up your eyes – show me your teeth’.
• Mouth – ‘open your mouth’ (look at tongue) ‘and say “ahh” (observe palate). ‘Please put out
your tongue’.
• Test neck flexion.
• Arms
- Look for wasting
- Test tone at wrist and elbow
- Observe outstretched arms with eyes closed (pronator test)
- Test power (shoulder abduction, elbow flexion and extension, finger extension and
abduction and abductor pollicis brevis)
- Reflexes (biceps, triceps and supinator).
• Legs
- Look for wasting
- Test tone at hip
- Test power (hip flexion and extension, knee flexion and extension,
foot dorsiflexion and plantar flexion).
- Reflexes (knee, ankle and plantar response).

• Sensation
- Test joint position sense in toes and fingers
- Test vibration sense on toes and fingers
- Test light touch and pinprick distally in hand and feet.

• Coordination – test finger – nose and heel – shin.

• Gait.
THANK YOU