title: Interobserver reliability of the Australian Spasticity Assessment Scale (ASAS).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this paper is to present the Australian Spasticity Assessment Scale (ASAS) and to report studies of its interrater reliability. The ASAS identifies the presence of spasticity by confirming a velocity-dependent increased response to rapid passive movement and quantifies it using an ordinal scale.
  
  
  METHODS
  The rationale and procedure for the ASAS is described. Twenty-two participants with spastic CP (16 males; age range 1y 11mo-15y 3mo) who had not had botulinum neurotoxin-A within 4 months, or bony or soft tissue surgery within 12 months, were recruited from the spasticity management clinic of a tertiary paediatric teaching hospital. Fourteen muscles in each child were assessed by each of three experienced independent raters. ASAS was recorded for all muscles. Interrater reliability was calculated using the weighted kappa statistic (quadratic weighting; κqw) for individual muscles, for upper limbs, for lower limbs, and between raters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The weighted kappa ranged between 0.75 and 0.92 for individual muscle groups and was 0.87 between raters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The ASAS complies with the definition of spasticity and is clinically feasible in paediatric settings. Our estimates of interrater reliability for the ASAS exceed that of the most commonly used spasticity scoring systems.
authors.affiliation: Physiotherapy Department, Princess Margaret Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia.|Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Love
authors.affiliation: Physiotherapy Department, Princess Margaret Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Noula
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.affiliation: Physiotherapy Department, Princess Margaret Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Physiotherapy Department, Princess Margaret Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia.|Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Natasha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bear
authors.affiliation: Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blair
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009128:Muscle Spasticity / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D015203:Reproducibility of Results