Reliability of muscle function and sensory perception measurements of the wrist extensors

Abstract

This study determined the reliability of muscle function and sensory perception measures of the wrist extensors. The test-retest reliability of the measurements was determined by an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), coefficient of variation (CV), standard error of measurements (SEMs), and one-way repeated measures ANOVA using the values collected from 25 young (20.6 +/- 1.3 years) healthy male volunteers on two occasions separated by 1 day. The measures consisted of grip strength, wrist extension strength (WES), range of motion in active and passive wrist flexion and extension, choice reaction time (CRT), vibration sense (VIB), joint position error sense (JPE), cold pain (CP) and heat pain threshold, and pressure pain threshold. An acceptable reliability was determined as the ICC values greater than 0.85, CV less than 15%, and SEMs less than 5%. ICC of all measures except for JPE were greater than 0.85, only CV of JPE, CP, and VIB exceeded 15%, SEMs were higher than 5% only for JPE and CP, and the ANOVA showed a significant time effect for CRT and WES. It is concluded that most of the measurements except JPE are reliable and can be used to investigate effects of a physiotherapy intervention on the wrist extensors.

Intrarater Reliability of Pain Intensity, Tissue Blood Flow, Thermal Pain Threshold, Pressure Pain Threshold and Lumbo-Pelvic Stability Tests in Subjects with Low Back Pain

“…Large variability of the CPT was also evidenced in subjects with spinal cord injury and neuropathic pain [29] . Khamwong et al [30] also found the similar result of greater in CV (i.e. 27 %) with the CPT measurement.…”

A prophylactic effect of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching on symptoms of muscle damage induced by eccentric exercise of the wrist extensors

“…As there is no information regarding this issue, we determined the clinical meaningfulness by estimating the minimally clinical important difference (MCID) using a distribution-based approach as recommended by Wells et al (2001). The findings demonstrated that all of these observed changes were beyond the standard error of measurements (Khamwong et al, 2010), and the observed values were greater than 37% (i.e., changes in thermal pain, pressure pain, range of motion, and strength were 6.2 C,42.4 kPa,11.4 ,29.5 N,respectively). Therefore, we considered that these amounts of change were clinically meaningful for rehabilitation and sport performance.…”

“…The same investigator conducted all measurements in a single-blinded manner. The room temperature was set at 25.0 C. All outcome measures including CPT, PPT, ROM (ROM-PF, ROM-PE, ROM-AF, ROM-AE) grip and wrist extension strength, were considered to be reliable with a 24-h interval of testretest (ICC > 0.85) (Khamwong et al, 2010).…”

Do core stability exercises improve upper limb function in chronic stroke patients?

“…Range of motion of shoulder flexion and abduction was recorded in degrees with the utilization of a standard goniometer. The reliability of a goniometer is shown with an intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.95 by Khamwong and colleagues [29].…”