Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Patellofemoral alignment: reliability

D A Tomsich1, A J Nitz, A J Threlkeld

  • 1Henry Ford Medical Center, Center for Athletic Medicine, West Bloomfield, MI, USA.

The Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy
|March 1, 1996
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Scapulothoracic latent muscle reaction timing comparison between trained overhead throwers and untrained control subjects.

Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports·2006
Same author

Cytomegalovirus infection of the native ureter after liver-kidney transplantation.

Urology·2001
Same author

Patient--practitioner collaboration in clinical decision-making.

Physiotherapy research international : the journal for researchers and clinicians in physical therapy·2000
Same author

Regular articles: conditional disruption of hedgehog signaling pathway defines its critical role in hair development and regeneration.

The Journal of investigative dermatology·2000
Same author

Acute renal allograft rejection with severe tubulitis (Banff 1997 grade IB).

The American journal of surgical pathology·2000
Same author

Asymptomatic inferior vena cava abnormalities in three children with end-stage renal disease: risk factors and screening guidelines for pretransplant diagnosis.

Pediatric transplantation·2000

Clinical measurements of patellofemoral alignment, including the Q angle and A angle, show poor reliability. Both visual estimation and instrumented techniques demonstrated significant variability, questioning their clinical utility for assessing knee alignment.

Area of Science:

  • Orthopedics
  • Biomechanics
  • Clinical Measurement

Background:

  • Patellofemoral alignment is crucial for knee function and often assessed clinically.
  • Previous research has not adequately investigated the repeatability of these clinical measurements.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the reliability of clinical measurements for assessing patellofemoral alignment.
  • To compare the reliability of goniometric, caliper, and visual estimation techniques.

Main Methods:

  • Measurements of Q angle, A angle, and patellar orientation were taken on 27 healthy subjects over three trials.
  • Standardized positioning and defined measurement techniques were employed.
  • Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and kappa statistics were used to assess reliability.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Intratester and intertester ICCs for instrumented measurements ranged from .003 to .86.
  • Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for visual estimation ranged from .03 to .57.
  • Standard errors indicated significant measurement variability for both clinical estimation and instrumented methods.

Conclusions:

  • Clinical assessment of patellofemoral alignment using common techniques may be unreliable.
  • Both visual estimation and instrumented measurements exhibit considerable intratester and intertester variability.
  • The findings suggest caution when interpreting clinical patellofemoral alignment measurements.