Manual Muscle Testing Introduction "Reliability of

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the reliability of the hand-held dynamometer with a comparison of data gathered with HHD and manual muscle tests (MMT). The authors point out that this relationship has been previously assessed only with healthy subjects and neuromuscular disorder patients. This study assessed a homogeneous group of patients with orthopaedic problems.

The authors first note the importance of accurate determination of patient muscle strength. Patients with osteoarthritis (OA) are tested for muscle strength for treatment planning and progress monitoring. A frequently used measure is isokinetic dynamometry, a costly method requiring heavy and stationary equipment. MMT and HHD are inexpensive, portable, and easy to perform. Previous studies are referred to with regard to the reliability testing of HHD with healthy subjects and those with neuromuscular disorders. It is stated that healthy subjects do not provide adequate strength ranges of measurements that can be generali

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-retest reliability coefficient of 0.92 was comparable to other investigations and provided support for the conclusion that HHD is reliable. The low correlation found between HHD and MMT for this study was attributed to a restriction of range of MMT scores; the fact that HHD measurements increased as the MMT grades increased offered support for the hypothesis. The study also pointed out possible weaknesses which included the use of weak examiners, weak patients, and inadequate trunk stabilization. Analysis & Evaluation A strength of this study includes its review of previous research and the logical assumption that testing of a homogeneous group of patients was lacking and needed to conclude the reliability of HHD. A weakness however, is that information regarding previous study methodologies (sample size, examiner characteristics) is not mentioned. It is logically assumed that data from a healthy population cannot be generalized to a patient population. Data based on a patient population is necessary to confirm HHD reliability for those in orthopaedic physical therapy. Although the study used a patient population and a comparison measurement technique, other procedures were limited. The sample size may or may not b
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Approximate Word count = 1362
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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