Modified Ashworth Scale
Purpose of the measure
The Modified Ashworth Scale is considered the primary clinical measure of muscle spasticity in patients with neurological conditions. However, some publications question its ability to measure spasticity and advocate the Modified Ashworth Scale as a rating scale to measure abnormality in tone or the resistance to passive movements, since there is no clinically direct method for measuring spasticity (Gregson, Leathley, Moore, Sharma, Smith & Watkins, 1999; Pandyan, Johnson, Price, Curless, Barnes & Rodgers, 1999).
Available versions
The Ashworth Scale was initially developed in the early 1960s by Bryan Ashworth, to estimate the efficclients with Multiple Sclerosis. It is a 5-point scale, with a grade score of 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 (Ashworth, 1964). In 1987, Bohannon and Smith added the grade "1+" and