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. 2020 Mar 24;12(3):864.
doi: 10.3390/nu12030864.

The Relationship Between Body Composition and Muscle Tone in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Case-Control Study

Paweł Więch  1 , Agnieszka Ćwirlej-Sozańska  1 , Agnieszka Wiśniowska-Szurlej  1 , Justyna Kilian  1 , Ewa Lenart-Domka  1   2 , Agnieszka Bejer  1 , Elżbieta Domka-Jopek  1 , Bernard Sozański  1 , Bartosz Korczowski  3
Affiliations

The Relationship Between Body Composition and Muscle Tone in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Case-Control Study

Paweł Więch et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The monitoring of children with cerebral palsy (CP) should include a precise assessment of the nutritional status to identify children and adolescents at risk of nutrition disorders. Available studies assessing the nutritional status of children with CP mainly focus on the relationship between body composition and the coexistence of motor dysfunctions, frequently overlooking the role of muscle tone. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the relationship between body composition and muscle tone in children with CP. In a case-control study (n = 118; mean age 11 y; SD = 3.8), the children with CP presented various stages of functional capacities, corresponding to all the levels in gross motor function classification system (GMFSC), and muscle tone described by all the grades in Ashworth scale. The control group consisted of healthy children and adolescents, strictly matched for gender and age in a 1:1 case-control manner. The children with CP were found with significantly lower mean values of fat-free mass (FFM kg = 29.2 vs. 34.5, p < 0.001), muscle mass (MM kg = 18.6 vs. 22.6, p < 0.001), body cell mass (BCM kg = 15.1 vs. 18.3, p < 0.001), and total body water (TBW L = 23.0 vs. 26.7, p < 0.001). The same differences in body composition were identified with respect to gender (p < 0.01 respectively). Moreover, children with higher muscle tone (higher score in Ashworth scale) were found with significantly lower values of fat mass (FM), FFM, MM, BCM, and TBW (p < 0.05). The findings showed lower parameters of body composition in the children with CP compared to the healthy children, and a decrease in the parameters coinciding with higher muscle tone in the study group. This observation suggests that it is necessary to measure muscle tone while assessing nutritional status of children with CP.

Keywords: Ashworth Scale; electric bioimpedance; nutritional assessment; rehabilitation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effects of muscle tone in muscle mass and total body water in the children with CP. Abbreviations: MM—muscle mass; effect of muscle tone in body composition of children with CP shown using linear regression.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effects of motor function in muscle mass and total body water in the children with CP.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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