The reliability of hand-held electronic dynamometer tests for lower limb muscle strength measurement in children with spastic cerebral palsy / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To determine the reliability of hand-held electronic dynamometer (HHD) tests for lower limb muscle strength measurement in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Methods Twenty-eight children ( 15 boys and 13 girls; mean age 5 years 8 months) with different types of CP (2 with spastic quadriplegia,8 spastic diplegia, 6 hemiplegia, 1 triplegia and 1 monoplegia) , and at different functional levels ( 19 graded at gross motor function classification system level Ⅰ, 6 level Ⅱ, 2 level Ⅲ and 1 level Ⅳ ) were recruited from the Rehabilitation Center of the Children's Hospital of Fudan University. Standardized HHD protocols were used to measure the strength of their hip, knee and ankle muscles. The HHD test was performed by the same examiner twice with an interval of 10 min in between. The HDD test was also performed with 15 randomly selected CP children by 2 examiners with an interval of 10 min in between. The test-retest and inter-rater reliabilities of the HDD readings were determined by calculating the intra- and inter-class correlation coefficients. Results The HHD measurements showed fine testretest reliability ( ICC = 0.74-0.97 ) and inter-rater reliability ( ICC = 0.63-0.97 ) in measuring lower-limb muscle strength of children with spastic CP, with the highest test-retest reliability for the hip flexion, foot plantar flexion and knee extension muscle groups. The highest inter-rater reliability was achieved with the hip flexion and foot dorsiflexion muscle groups. Conclusions Standardized HHD testing of lower-limb muscle strength in children with spastic CP shows fine test-retest and inter-rater reliability. The HHD can reliably assess the lower-limb muscle strength of children with spastic CP.