CORRELATION BETWEEN SPASTICITY AND WEAKNESS OF THE LOWER LIMBS WITH FATIGUE IN PATIENTS WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Background: Individuals affected by Multiple Sclerosis (MS) present weakness in the lower limbs (LL), abnormal muscle tone and fatigue.Aims: To correlate the spasticity and weakness of lower limbs with fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis patients.Methods: The study is the ex post fact type with a correlational design, performed with patients MS.A total of 45 individuals were evaluated.The Modified Fatigue Impact Scale in MS (MFIS) was used to asses fatigue; the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) for lower limb (LL) spasticity and the 5-repetition sit-to-stand (5STS) test to characterize the strength of LL.Results: The mean of MFIS was 42.76 (±19.65) points, indicating the presence of fatigue among the patients and in the 5 STS-test the average was 15.37 (±5.89) which chacacterized them with decreased muscle strength.Thirtynine patients had some degree of spasticity in the lower limbs (86.66%).There was a positive correlation between fatigue and muscle strength of LL (r = 0.412 and p <0.05) and between fatigue and spasticity of adductors muscles (r =0.295) (p<0.049).Conclusions: Muscle strength of lower limbs is related to fatigue in MS patients demonstrating that the higher the muscle strength, the lower the presence of this symptom in multiple sclerosis patients.