Volume 87, Issue 3 , Pages 411-417, March 2006
The Development, Validity, and Reliability of a Manual Muscle Testing Device With Integrated Limb Position Sensors
Abstract
Li RC, Jasiewicz JM, Middleton J, Condie P, Barriskill A, Hebnes H, Purcell B. The development, validity, and reliability of a manual muscle testing device with integrated limb position sensors.
Objective
To report the development and validation of a new hand-held muscle strength-testing device that is integrated with orientation sensors and designed to test the strength of major muscle groups at a given limb or joint position.
Design
Design description and validation study.
Setting
University-based human movement facility.
Participants
Twenty-eight able-bodied, healthy subjects.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measure
A device was developed based on a hand-held force dynamometer with integrated orientation sensors. The validity and reliability (interrater, intertrial) of 5 maximum isometric contractions of hip flexion, knee extension, and ankle plantarflexion and dorsiflexion were assessed. The results were compared with those from an isokinetic dynamometer (KinCom).
Results
The new manual muscle tester was highly reliable and valid in estimating muscle strength of the lower limbs. The coefficient of variation between trials of all movements was low, with a mean less than 10% (range, 3.7%–8.9%). The only significant difference in muscle strength between the new device and the isokinetic dynamometer was found for hip flexion.
Conclusions
The new hand-held muscle strength tester appears to be a reliable and valid clinical assessment tool that can be used to objectively assess muscle strength at particular limb positions and/or joint angles. This feature appears to represent a technical advance in portable muscle strength devices, providing comparable information to those obtained by isokinetic dynamometers at a fraction of the cost and size. However, the device needs to be validated in clinical populations, such as patients with spinal cord injury and stroke, in order to demonstrate its general clinical utility.
Key Words: Muscles , Rehabilitation , Reliability and validity , Transducers
Supported by QUT Strategic Links with Industry.No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the authors or upon any organization with which the authors are associated.
PII: S0003-9993(05)01423-1
doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2005.11.011
© 2006 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Volume 87, Issue 3 , Pages 411-417, March 2006
