Abstract
Kristjansson E, Hardardottir L, Asmundardottir M, Gudmundsson K. A new clinical test
for cervicocephalic kinesthetic sensibility: “The Fly.” Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2004;85:490–5.
Objective
To investigate the reliability and discriminative ability of a new test designed to
detect accuracy of neck movements.
Design
Repeated-measures. Case-control.
Setting
University musculoskeletal research clinic in Iceland.
Participants
Twenty women (mean age ± standard deviation [SD], 30.8±9.1y; range, 18–49y) with chronic
whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) grades I and II (duration, 6mo–6y), with current
pain score on a visual analog scale of 46.8±21.8, and a disability score on the Northwick
Park Neck Pain Disability Index of 45%±14%. Twenty asymptomatic women (mean age ±
SD, 29.3±8.6y; range, 18–48y) with no history of whiplash or insidious onset neck
pain served as controls.
Intervention
A slowly moving object appeared on a computer screen and traced an unpredictable movement
path that the subjects were required to follow by moving their heads. Three randomly
ordered movement patterns were tested.
Main outcome measure
A new software program connected to a 3Space Fastrak system was used to measure the
mean absolute error (in millimeters) of 3 trials in each movement pattern.
Results
The mean differences (±2 SD) between days 1 and 2 were .01±.64mm for the asymptomatic
group and .33±1.80mm for the WAD group. The between-day intraclass correlation coefficients
were between .60 and .77 for the asymptomatic group and .79 and .86 for the WAD group.
Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed a significant difference between groups
(P=.02). The Tukey post hoc test showed significant between-group differences for each
movement pattern (P≤.05). In each successive trial, a slight improvement for the asymptomatic group and
a slight worsening for the WAD group were detected.
Conclusions
Better reliability was detected for the asymptomatic group than for the WAD group.
The test could discriminate between the asymptomatic group versus the chronic WAD
group.
Keywords
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☆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 author(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
