Rossolimo Instruments

ROSSOLIMO INSTRUMENTS. An individual dynamometer is an instrument for investigating the gripping force of the hand; it represents a modification of a spring dynamometer, improved in the part intended for force application (hand grasp): the handle is arranged in the form of two parallel plates, the distance between which can be varied according to the size of the subject's hand. Brain topograph, see Encephalography. Clonograph—an instrument for recording hyperkinesias of the hand (Nouv. iconographie de la Salpêtrière, 1898). Recording is performed on a kymograph by the pen of a Marey capsule connected by a common rubber tube with four rubber bulbs, which are arranged along a metal circle fixed on a stand in a vertical plane, at the ends of its vertical and horizontal diameters; each of the rubber bulbs is enclosed by cords, at the ends of which, converging at the center of the metal circle, an oval ring is fastened for connection with the limb under study; if the tips of the fingers of an outstretched arm or leg are inserted into this ring, involuntary movements occurring in the vertical and horizontal planes will be captured by the compressing bulbs and fixed in the form of a corresponding curve on the kymograph tape.—Besides the above-described instruments, which have long entered clinical diagnostic practice, Rossolimo in the last two years of his life constructed models of a number of new apparatuses, a detailed description of which was made by him himself in an article that appeared in print after the author's death (jubilee collection of Prof. Ranschburg). These apparatuses are intended, like the previous ones, for the purposes of objective investigation of nervous system functions. Rossolimo invariably emphasized that clinical diagnosis of nervous diseases must be transferred in all its details to objective, recording methods. With his latest projects, Rossolimo carried out his idea in a number of new instruments, namely, he proposed: the diadoxokymograph (for recording diadadochokinesis); synergometers [for measuring hand synergy (Fisher's phenomenon) and trunk and leg synergy (flexion combinée)]; then instruments for orthokinometry (measuring the degree of coordination disturbance in the upper and lower extremities); orthostatometer (measuring Romberg's symptom), prosopometer (measuring the degree of pulling of the corner of the mouth and tongue deviation); dermographometer (an instrument allowing the graduation of skin irritation force when studying dermographism and determining the magnitude of the skin reaction).