A comparison of 2 techniques for measuring rectus femoris muscle thickness in cerebral palsy.
OBJECTIVE
: Precise measures of muscle size are useful when investigating weakness in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine agreement between 2 muscle thickness measurements of the rectus femoris (RF) in CP.


METHODS
: Measures of RF thickness in 13 youth with CP who were ambulatory (mean age: 14.4 ± 3.6 years) were obtained bilaterally using ultrasound imaging. Three measures were obtained at 50% thigh length and averaged (MT50). Maximum muscle thickness (MaxMT) was also determined through repeated measurements toward the proximal insertion of the RF.


RESULTS
: The Bland-Altman plot showed that all values, except for one outlier, fell within 95% limits of agreement (-0.11 to 0.28 cm), showing excellent agreement. However, a constant bias toward higher values with MaxMT method was observed.


CONCLUSIONS
: Given the time-consuming nature of obtaining MaxMT, the MT50 measurement may be a more feasible alternative when estimating maximum muscle thickness of the RF.
Department of Health Professions, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA..
Ashley P
AP
Dew
Noelle G
NG
Moreau
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D018908:Muscle Weakness / Q000473:pathology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D052097:Quadriceps Muscle / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods