During today’s physical examination, my junior asked how to check for ankle clonus. Actually, I didn’t know how, but I pretended to stay calm and checked the tendon reflex to fool the patient.
The patient can be temporarily fooled and checked again after a while, but you can’t fool your own conscience. I recorded this matter and how to check for ankle clonus, hoping it could be helpful to everyone.
Ankle Clonus
During the examination, ask the patient to lie supine with the hip and knee slightly flexed. One hand holds the patient’s lower leg, and the other hand holds the distal end of the foot. Forcefully dorsiflex the ankle joint, causing the ankle joint to exhibit rhythmic flexion and extension movements. More than 3 beats is considered abnormal.
It is generally seen in pyramidal tract lesions and can also be observed in central nervous system excitability increase and neurosis. Treatment is aimed at the primary disease.