[Study on reliablility of flexion-extension ratio in surface EMG for the diagnosis of nonspecific chronic low back pain].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the reliability of flexion-extension ratio (FER) of lumbar erector muscle in surface EMG for the diagnosis of nonspecific chronic low back pain.


METHODS
According to diagnostic study strategies, 73 patients with chronic low back pain and 86 controls were recruited in this study, FER of lumbar erector muscle were recorded in surface EMG for all the subjects. The critical value of FER for the diagnosis of nonspecific chronic low back pain was selected according to the receiver operator characteristic curve by SPSS. Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were calculated and analyzed as well.


RESULTS
The FER in patients group was significantly higher than that in the control group. The critical value of FER was 0.68 with sensitivity, specificity and accuracy was 78.1%, 95.3% and 87.4% respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
FER of lumbar erector muscle might be practically applied as an objective indicator on the diagnosis of nonspecific chronic low back pain in surface EMG.
Wei
Jie
J
General Air Force Hospital, Beijing 100036, China. kzzp@sina.com
Zhao
Ping
P
Zhou
Wei
W
Xing
Hua-Xiong
HX
D002908:Chronic Disease; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology