Ch.5 Examination and Evaluation of Sensory Systems Test Bank

Chapter 5: Examination and Evaluation of Sensory Systems

Dennis W. Fell, PT, MD

Multiple Choice

1. Why would testing sensation be important if the therapist is trying to restore movement after a cerebral injury like a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or brain injury?

A. Conscious proprioception plays a very important role in refining movement during usual activity.

B. Light touch sensation helps to prevent skin breakdown.

C. Proprioceptive sense contributes to optimal movement while tactile sense (pressure) helps to prevent skin breakdown in a person with decreased mobility.

D. Pressure touch helps to refine complex skilled movement.

2. What is the most important sensory receptor to help monitor joint position sense and joint movement sense and muscle length?

A. Muscle spindles

B. Golgi tendon organ

C. Pacinian corpuscles

D. Merkel’s disc

3. A patient has a lacunar infarct with resulting impairment of processing sensory/afferent information. Which of the following is the most likely anatomic area of the pathology?

A. Precentral gyrus

B. Ventral-posterior lateral nucleus (VPL) of thalamus

C. Anterior horn of spinal cord

D. Lateral corticospinal tract

4. Which of the following is a part of the standard sensory testing procedure that serves to decrease the patient’s ability to guess or predict the next accurate response during sensory testing?

A. Demonstrate the test and the possible patient responses

B. Test with vision eliminated

C. Maintain the sensory stimulus only briefly

D. Provide the stimulus in a random fashion

5. Which of the following correctly matches the dermatomal level to the optimal sensory testing site?

A. T3: Nipple level

B. L4: Medial malleolus

C. S1: Posterior knee

D. C4: First digit of hand

6. In determining the quantity or extent of a sensory deficit you detect, which of the following best describes a distribution of peripheral sensory loss?

A. A “stocking/glove” distribution of sensory loss

B. Sensory loss in a particular peripheral cutaneous nerve distribution

C. Dermatomal sensory loss

D. Paraplegic sensory loss

7. Pain sensibility testing involves…

A. Saying to the patient “Tell me when you feel it.”

B. Apply the pinpoint with more pressure on the affected side.

C. Asking the patient each time “Does it feel sharp or dull?”

D. Testing integrity of the lateral corticospinal tract

8. Which is the most objective way to test the threshold of sensitivity for pressure touch?

A. Use of Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments

B. Randomly applying sensation with deep pressure sometimes and light pressure other times

C. A 1.65 filament may be the best indicator for protective sensation in the feet

D. Testing the fingertips with a wisp of cotton

9. Which is a method that can be used to screen proprioception bilaterally?

A. The therapist positions a joint on one side and the patient verbally reports the position

B. The therapist positions a joint on one side and then the patient moves the same limb to reproduce the same position

C. The therapist positions a joint on one side and the patient quickly moves the joint to the opposite end of the range

D. The therapist positions a joint on one side and then the patient positions the same joint on the opposite side to match

10. Which best described the procedure for testing joint movement sense?

A. Ask the patient to move the test limb into the same position, after the therapist has moved to other limb into a test position

B. Ask the patient to describe the direction of joint movement while the therapist passively moves the joint

C. Ask the patient to describe the direction of joint movement after the therapist has completed a movement of the test limb

D. Ask the patient to mirror the position of the opposite limb