• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.61-67
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine inter- and intra-examiner reliability of the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) anatomical landmarks palpation. Two physical therapists and one doctor specializing in rehabilitation examined 22 asymptomatic subjects. They examined anterior superior iliac supine (ASIS), posterior superior iliac supine (PSIS) and iliac crest (IC). For the assessment of intra-examiner reliability, 3 examiners repeated the measurements 3 times over a 2-week interval. Kappa (Kg) yielded intra-examiner reliability that ranged between slight to fair for the ASIS (Kg=.06 to .26; mean Kg=.19), and slight for the PSIS(Kg=-.04 to .18; mean Kg=.07) and slight to fair for the IC (Kg=.06 to .32; mean Kg=.21). Inter-examiner reliability was slight (ASIS Kg=.13; PSIS Kg=.05; IC Kg=.14). These results suggest that the reliability of the assessing SIJ anatomical landmarks using palpation and observation as an indication of SIJ dysfunction still remains questionable. Before this test can be relied upon as an accurate indicator of SIJ dysfunction, it must undergo further research. This further research needs to examine not only reliability, but also validity, sensitivity and specificity.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.59-66
• /
• 2011

Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate the inter- and intra-examiner reliability of ultrasonography (US) for measuring the thicknesses and cross-sectional area of the longus colli muscle (LCM) in healthy subjects. Methods: Twenty-five healthy adults participated in this study as subjects and two examiners attended to the study. LCM size was measured at the level of the thyroid cartilage. All subjects were randomly allocated to one of the three different methods. Method 1 was that the examiner A conducts the first measurement and one hour later conducts the second measurement and twenty four hours later conducts the third measurement, respectively. Method 2 was that the examiner B conducts the measurements in the same way as the examiner A. Method 3 was that the examiners A and B randomly conduct the measurements twice at an interval of one hour. Results: The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for the intra-examiner reliability ranged from 0.78 to 0.98 at rest and 0.57 to 0.98 during contraction for the examiner A. The $ICC_{3,3}$ for the intra-examiner reliability ranged from 0.60 to 0.96 at rest and 0.57 to 0.92 during contraction for the examiner B. The $ICC_{2,3}$ for the inter-examiner reliability ranged from 0.80 to 0.91 at rest and 0.84 to 0.93 during contraction. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that US is a reliable method for measuring the LCM size.

• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.86-95
• /
• 2008

The Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS) is a modified Berg's Balance Scale developed as a balance measure for school-aged children with mild to moderate motor impairments. The purpose of this study was to determine the inter-examiner reliability of the Korean version of PBS when applied to children with developmental delays. In this study, PBS was administrated to a total of 79 children with developmental delays (17 with global developmental delay, 31 with cerebral palsy, and 31 with mental retardation) in the Seoul Community Rehabilitation Center. Two pediatric trained physical therapists with longer than 13 year of clinical experience scored the children's performance blind, while replaying videotaped data. The inter-examiner reliability was statistically determined by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). The results of this study revealed that the Korean version of PBS seems to have high inter-examiner reliability when applied to children with movement disorders such as global developmental delay (ICC=.96) and cerebral palsy (ICC=.97); however, it has relatively lower inter-examiner reliability (ICC=.78) for children with developmental delay secondary to mental retardation. therefore, the results support that the Korean version of the PBS could be a useful clinical measurement to assess the balance skills for children with developmental delay who have an adequate level of cognition to enable them to fol1ow the verbal instructions to complete the test.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.124-129
• /
• 2015

Purpose: Salivary pH is an easily measurable biochemical marker and related to various intraoral and systemic conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the salivary pH measurement using pH paper. In addition, the normal values of salivary pH using pH paper were compared to those of pH meter to investigate the validity. Methods: Twenty healthy male participants attended this study (mean age, $24.5{\pm}1.47$ years). Unstimulated saliva and stimulated saliva were collected from each subject two times with the interval of a day and salivary pH was immediately measured by the two experienced examiners using pH paper and pH meter. The salivary pH was compared between the groups and inter- and intra-examiner reliability of pH paper was investigated. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to calculate variations. Results: All measurements had good to excellent inter-examiner (ICC 0.755 for unstimulated; 0.760 for stimulated saliva), intra-examiner (ICC 0.635 for unstimulated; 0.592 for stimulated saliva) reliability and two measurement methods using pH paper and pH paper also showed high reliability (ICC 0.852 for unstimulated; 0.640 for stimulated saliva). The values measured by pH paper were significantly lower than those measured by pH meter. Conclusions: pH paper showed adequate inter- and intra-examiner reliability and it presented the validity in terms of comparison with the pH meter as a standard in the salivary pH measurement.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.60 no.4
• /
• pp.441-447
• /
• 2017

Objective : Computed tomography (CT)-based method of three dimensional (3D) analysis ($MIMICS^{(R)}$, Materialise, Leuven, Belgium) is reported as very useful software for evaluation of OPLL, but its reliability and reproducibility are obscure. This study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of $MIMICS^{(R)}$ system, and inter- and intra-observer reliability in the measurement of OPLL. Methods : Three neurosurgeons independently analyzed the randomly selected 10 OPLL cases with medical image processing software ($MIMICS^{(R)}$) which create 3D model with Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) data from CT images after brief explanation was given to examiners before the image construction steps. To assess the reliability of inter- and intra-examiner intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), 3 examiners measured 4 parameters (volume, length, width, and length) in 10 cases 2 times with 1-week interval. Results : The inter-examiner ICCs among 3 examiners were 0.996 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.987-0.999) for volume measurement, 0.973 (95% CI, 0.907-0.978) for thickness, 0.969 (95% CI, 0.895-0.993) for width, and 0.995 (95% CI, 0.983-0.999) for length. The intra-examiner ICCs were 0.994 (range, 0.991-0.996) for volume, 0.996 (range, 0.944-0.998) for length, 0.930 (range, 0.873-0.947) for width, and 0.987 (range, 0.985-0.995) for length. Conclusion : The medical image processing software ($MIMICS^{(R)}$) provided detailed quantification OPLL volume with minimal error of inter- and intra-observer reliability in the measurement of OPLL.

• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.73-79
• /
• 2014

The purposes of the current study were to (1) estimate the inter-rater agreement for visual assessment of scapular downward rotation (SDR), (2) develop the scapular downward rotation index (SDRI) as a method to measure SDR objectively and quantitatively, and (3) analyze the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the SDRI. Twenty subjects with scapular downward rotation syndrome (SDRS) were recruited for this study. The visual assessment and the measurement for the SDRI were conducted by two examiners in two sessions each. The SDRI [$(a-b){\div}a{\times}100$] is calculated with the measurement of two linear distances: One is a perpendicular distance from the root of the scapular spine to the thoracic mid-line (a), and the other is a perpendicular distance from the inferior angle of the scapula to the thoracic mid-line (b). Cohen's kappa coefficient was calculated to estimate the inter-rater agreement for visual assessment. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) with a 95% confidence interval (CI), the standard error of measurement, and minimal detectable differences were calculated to assess intra- and inter-rater reliability of SDR measurement using the SDRI. The results indicated that the kappa coefficient of inter-rater agreement for visual assessment was fair (${\kappa}=.21$). The intra-rater reliability of SDR measurement using the SDRI was excellent for examiner 1 (ICC=.92, 95% CI=.78~.97) and good for examiner 2 (ICC=.82, 95% CI=.55~.93). The inter-rater reliability was moderate (ICC=.73, 95% CI=.32~.89). These findings showed that SDR measurement using the SDRI for subjects with SDRS may be considered reliable and better than the visual assessment.

• PNF and Movement
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.329-337
• /
• 2019

Purpose: Ultrasound imaging is commonly used to measure the pennation angle of human skeletal muscles in vivo. However, manual assessment of the pennation angle using ultrasound images is subjective and time-consuming and requires a high level of examiner skill. The architectural analysis of human skeletal muscles is thus challenging. Automated approaches using image processing techniques are therefore required to estimate the pennation angle in ultrasound images. The purpose of this study was thus to assess the intra-tester and inter-tester reliability and validity of the pennation angle using an automatic measurement program. Methods: Twenty-two healthy young adults (mean age = 22.55 years) with no medical history of neurological or musculoskeletal disorders voluntarily participated in this study. Ultrasound imaging was used to measure the pennation angle of the gastrocnemius muscle at rest. One examiner acquired images from all the participants. The intra-tester and inter-tester reliability were evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to estimate reliability. Validity was measured using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: The intra-rater reliability was excellent for the automatic pennation angle measuring program and the manual pennation angle assessment method (ICC>0.95). The inter-rater reliability was also excellent for both methods (ICC>0.93). All the correlation coefficients for the automatic pennation angle measuring program and the manual pennation angle assessment method were 0.79, which indicated a significantly positive correlation (p<0.05). Conclusion: Pennation angle measurement using the automatic pennation angle measuring program showed acceptable reliability and validity. This study therefore demonstrated that the automatic measuring program was able to automatically measure the pennation angle of skeletal muscles using ultrasound images, and thus made it easy to investigate skeletal muscle architecture.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.418-424
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study was to assess repeatability and reliability of a new phoria test as compared to established phoria tests and to assess the possibility of mobile or online testing using the auto-flashed presentation. Near dissociated phoria was measured using the von Graefe method, the Howell card test, the modified Thorington test, and a new dichromatic card test (Red-Blue Phoria card test; RBP card test) on 109 subjects. The inter-examiner difference and test-retest difference were calculated. With the auto-flashed presentation of the RBP card test, near dissociated phoria was measured and the intraclass correlation coefficient and test-retest repeatability was assessed on 26 subjects. The variation in inter-examiner repeatability was the smallest for the modified Thorington test (+3.1/-2.6). The RBP card test was +3.0/-3.1, the Howell card test was +3.5/-2.7, and the von Graefe test was +6.2/-6.0. The variation in test-retest repeatability was the smallest for the RBP card test (+0.4/-1.4). The modified Thorington test was +1.3/-1.3, the Howell card test was +1.27/-1.45, and the von Graefe test was +1.59/-2.20. The ICC was 0.919 for the auto-flashed presentation of the RBP card test. The RBP card test is considered a highly repeatable method clinically and can be made a useful application for testing in mobile or online.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.197-202
• /
• 2013

Purpose: This research was performed to measure and analyze scotopic pupil size in myopes and to figure out the factors that influence it. Methods: The pupil size of 191 healthy myopic subjects were measured with the pupillometer (Colvard pupillometer, OASIS medical, USA) in scotopic and analyzed with the age, corneal size, spherical equivalent refractive error, corneal curvature. In addition, it was compared with the measurements of intra-examiner and inter-examiner to verify reproducibility of pupillometer. Results: The mean (${\pm}$SD) scotopic pupil size was $6.64{\pm}0.68$ mm (range, 5.00~8.00 mm), the lower age and the larger corneal size, The bigger the pupil size. The lower spherical equivalent refractive error and steepper corneal curvature tends to be smaller. The reproducibility of intra-examiner and inter-examiner in pupillometer showed the reliability highly (Guttman splithalf point > 0.91). Conclusions: The pupil size associated with age, corneal size, spherical equivalent refractive error and corneal curvature in scotopic condition. It can refer to prevent inconvenience that may occur RGP contact lenses, cataract surgery and refractive surgery.

• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.51-62
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this study was to compare the relative accuracy of a range of computer-based analysis with respect to EMG onset determined visually by an experienced examiner. Ten healthy students (6 male, 4 female) were recruited and three times randomly selected trials of isometric contraction of wrist flexion and extension were evaluated using four technique. These methods were compared which varied in terms of EMG processing, threshold value and the number of samples for which the mean must exceed the defined threshold, and beyond 7% of maximum amplitude. To identify determination of onset time, ICCs(Intraclass Correlation Coefficients) was used and inter-rater arid intra-rater reliability ranged good in visually derived onset values. The results of this study present that in wrist flexion and extension, the reliability of the inter and intra-examiner muscle contraction onset times through visual analysis showed beyond .971 with ICCs. The reliability of the muscle contraction onset time decision through visual reading, tested with computer analysis, showed a relationship of all the selected analysis methods with ICCs .859 and .871. The objective computer-based analysis comparing with visual reading at the same time is the effective and qualitative data analysis method, considering the specificity of each study method.