Reliability of rehabilitative ultrasonographic imaging for muscle thickness measurement of the rhomboid major.
OBJECTIVE
This study was to establish inter-rater and intrarater reliability of the rehabilitative ultrasonographic imaging (RUSI) technique for muscle thickness measurement of the rhomboid major at rest and with the shoulder abducted to 90°.


METHODS
Twenty-four young adults (eight men, 16 women; right-handed; mean age [±SD], 24·4 years [±2·6]) with no history of neck, shoulder, or arm pain were recruited.


METHODS
Rhomboid major muscle images were obtained in the resting position and with shoulder in 90° abduction using an ultrasonography system with a 7·5-MHz linear transducer. In these two positions, the examiners found the site at which the transducer could be placed. Two examiners obtained the images of all participants in three test sessions at random. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were used to estimate reliability.


RESULTS
All ICCs (95% CI) were >0·75, ranging from 0·93 to 0·98, which indicates good reliability. The ICCs for inter-rater reliability ranged from 0·75 to 0·94. For the absolute value of the difference in the intra-examiner reliability between the right and left ratios, the ICCs ranged from 0·58 to 0·91.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the intra- and interexaminer reliability of muscle thickness measurements of the rhomboid major were good. Therefore, we suggest that muscle thickness measurements of the rhomboid major obtained with the RUSI technique would be useful for clinical rehabilitative assessment.
Department of Physical Therapy, Sahmyook University College of Health Science, Seoul, Korea.
Ju Ri
JR
Jeong
Department of Physical Therapy, Sahmyook University College of Health Science, Seoul, Korea.
Young Jun
YJ
Ko
Department of Physical Therapy, Sahmyook University College of Health Science, Seoul, Korea.
Hyun Geun
HG
Ha
Department of Physical Therapy, Sahmyook University College of Health Science, Seoul, Korea.
Wan Hee
WH
Lee
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D015588:Observer Variation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012146:Rest; D064171:Superficial Back Muscles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D055815:Young Adult
reliability; rhomboid major; ultrasonographic imaging