Observations on the applicability of the Wartenberg pendulum test to healthy, elderly subjects.

Wartenberg developed his pendulum test as a simple but precise test to assist examination of muscle tone in patients with Parkinson's disease. It has recently been reintroduced, and computerised, to evaluate spasticity in young hemiplegics. The results are reported on the highly successful application of this computerised test to large numbers of healthy, elderly subjects. The data have provided normal values for a number of measurements. Analysis of variance has shown that differences between individual subjects account for a major part of the total variabilities seen in all measurements taken. Factors such as position, leg and time trend contribute very little to total variation and, for practical purposes, can be ignored.