Diagnostic palpation of the spine: a review of procedures and assessment of their reliability.
Spinal palpation as employed by practitioners of manipulative therapy is a common diagnostic tool used to identify manipulable lesions. Three methods of diagnostic palpation are static palpation, active motion palpation and passive motion palpation. As a diagnostic technique, spinal palpation suffers from a lack of research on its statistical reliability. Assessment of the clinical efficacy of manipulative therapy would be better addressed if a statistically reliable method of palpatory diagnosis were developed.
D002684:Chiropractic; D006801:Humans; D010173:Palpation / Q000379:methods*; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*