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0:00
Hello, my name is
Dr. Hans Katzberg.
In this second section
about crampology,
a two-part series, I'm
going to be speaking
on the measurement and
treatment of muscle cramps.
I'm a neurologist and an Associate
Professor of Medicine at
the University of Toronto and
the Prosserman Centre for
Neuromuscular Diseases.
0:20
The objectives for
this section of
the talk will be to describe
current and novel
methods of assessing
muscle cramps clinically
and for clinical research.
This will be critical as we
develop novel treatments as well
as try to get adequate
ways to measure cramps.
We'll talk a little bit
about understanding what
the current management
strategies are in
the care of patients
with cramps,
particularly neurogenic
muscle cramps.
Then, review a rational
approach to grant management,
starting with non-pharmacological
and then leading to
pharmacological or prescription-level
treatment options.
0:52
One comment before
we start talking
about assessing muscle
cramps and treatments
that can be helpful
is how we actually
assess cramps to see if some
of our treatments are working?
Traditionally, cramp
frequency has been
the most commonly used method
to assess muscle cramps.
By that, I mean counting the muscle cramps
that occur in a given period of time.
For example, one might
ask a patient or
person how many cramps they've
experienced that week.
As I've mentioned before,
cramps usually occur
in distinct entities,
although sometimes it
can be difficult to
identify how long a
cramp is actually
occurring for and distinguish it
from a post-cramp pain syndrome
over the actual contraction
is what we're looking at.
Cramp frequency can
be very helpful.
However, in data
from our own clinic,
we've shown that there
may be other helpful
are important factors to
the cramp experience,
such as along a cramp blast
or how intense the pain is.
Perhaps, that not just cramp
frequency correlates with disability.
For example, here you will see
a bar graph from data
from our own clinic.
A number of patients,
seeing that
patients may have a low
level of cramp intensity.
There is a pseudo-normal
distribution
where most patients will
identify a cramp intensity
of about 8 out of 10
and then some more or
less severe than that.
So based on this, it does
seem that there may be more
to the cramp experience
than just cramp frequency.
