title: Reliability of indices of neuromuscular leg performance in end-stage renal failure.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the day-to-day reproducibility and single measurement reliability of peak force, time to half peak force and rate of force development indices of knee extension neuromuscular performance in patients with end-stage renal failure. Eleven self-selected patients (6 men, 5 women) receiving maintenance dialysis (dialysis history 67 +/- 42.8 month) completed 3 inter-day assessment sessions. Each comprised a standardized warm-up and 3 intermittent static maximal voluntary actions of the knee extensors of the preferred limb (45 degrees knee flexion angle [0 degrees = full knee extension]) using a specially-constructed dynamometer. Repeated measures ANOVA of coefficient of variation scores revealed significant differences between indices in their reproducibility across day-to-day trials. Post-hoc comparisons of group mean scores suggested that peak force (6.6 +/- 3.0%) offers significantly greater measurement reproducibility than time to half peak force (16.8 +/- 9.5%) or rate of force development (20.3 +/- 12.1%). Intraclass correlation coefficients and standard error of measurement scores showed that single-trial assessments of peak force, time to half peak force and rate of force development would demonstrate limited precision and capability to discriminate subtle intra-subject or inter-subject changes in neuromuscular performance.
authors.affiliation: School of Sport, Health and Physical Education Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK.
authors.forename: N P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Gleeson
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Naish
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Wilcock
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Mercer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007866:Leg / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009468:Neuromuscular Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006435:Renal Dialysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results