In: Biology
Why is it that if the patient concentrates during the examination, such as doing a difficult math problem, they will not have the normal reflex? When tapping the reflex of the patella.
The reflex time tends not to be very variant in a single person during a session (always +-2 ms), but the reflex time between individuals can range from 13 ms to 35 ms. Since this is an unconscious reflex,age, fitness, athletes may all be factors. Also, the reaction component tends to be more varied trial to trial within a person (from 130 - 200 ms), as this requires conscious control and "attention" which increase time variability between trials. When response are absent this could be a clue that the spinal cord, nerve root, peripheral nerve, or muscle has been damaged.when the response is abnormal, it may be due to the disruption of the sensory (feeling) or motor (movement) nerves or both.
When responses are absent this could be a clue that the spinal cord, nerve root, peripheral nerve, or muscle has been damaged.
So hence this may be the reason why the patient fails to have normal patella reflex.