Visual assessment of dynamic knee joint alignment in patients with patellofemoral pain: an agreement study

Assessment of knee kinematics plays an important role in the clinical examination of patients with patellofemoral pain (PFP). There is evidence that visual assessments are reliable in healthy subjects, but there is a lack of evidence in injured populations. The purpose of this study was to examine t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2021-10, Vol.9, p.e12203-e12203, Article e12203
Main Authors: Hansen, Rudi, Lundgaard-Nielsen, Mathilde, Henriksen, Marius
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agreement
Agreements
Anesthesiology and Pain Management
Biomechanics
Clinical medicine
Kinematics
Knee
Knee Alignment
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Orthopedics
Pain
Patellofemoral Pain
Patients
Performance evaluation
PFP
Ratings & rankings
Reliability
Rheumatology
Visual Assessment
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Summary:Assessment of knee kinematics plays an important role in the clinical examination of patients with patellofemoral pain (PFP). There is evidence that visual assessments are reliable in healthy subjects, but there is a lack of evidence in injured populations. The purpose of this study was to examine the intra- and interrater agreement in the visual assessment of dynamic knee joint alignment in patients with PFP. The study was a cross-sectional agreement study. Sixty participants (42 females) were included. We assessed the intra- and interrater agreement of two functional tests: The single leg squat (SLS) and the forward lunge (FL). One investigator scored the movement according to preset criteria while video recording the movement for retest. Moreover, the performance was scored by another investigator using the video recording. Agreement was assessed using weighted kappa statistics. The intrarater agreement ranged from moderate to good (Kappa 0.58 (FL) to 0.70 (SLS)) whereas the interrater agreement ranged from fair to moderate (Kappa 0.22 (SLS) to 0.50 (FL)). The agreement within raters was better than between raters, which suggests that assessments should preferably be performed by the same tester in research and in a clinical setting, e.g., to evaluate any treatment effect. We promote FL as a reliable clinical tool for evaluating dynamic knee alignment, since it shows equally good intra- and interrater agreement, and it is an inexpensive and easy method to use.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.12203