title: Romberg ratio in quiet stance posturography--Test to retest reliability.
abstract: We investigated test to retest reliability and intraindividual variability of Romberg ratios in quiet stance posturography. Thirty-six healthy young adults (17 males, 19 females aged 15-38 years) were divided into 3 groups with different time-intervals between consecutive trials (20 min, 3h and 24h respectively). Each group performed 5 posturography recordings in a randomized order of eyes open (EO) or closed (EC)+once after 3 months. We measured the torque variance in posturography and calculated Romberg ratios. Total postural sway as well as sway above and below 0.1Hz was analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Test to retest reliability was found to be poor for Romberg ratios (intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) <0.4) despite that the individual EO and EC posturography recordings were consistent. For sway >0.1Hz the Romberg ratios were found to be more consistent (fair to good, ICC 0.49-0.71). The variation between two consecutive tests (absolute difference (%)) was high when using the traditional Romberg ratio (EC/EO), but became less varied if an alternate formula that includes the total postural sway was used ((EC-EO)/(EC+EO)×100).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In healthy young adults the evaluation of ratios from repeated quiet stance posturography show great intraindividual inconsistency. This questions the Romberg ratio as being a reliable tool for evaluation of postural performance and determination of sensory preference in postural control, at least in healthy controls. Whether test-retest reliability is acceptable in patient cohorts needs to be evaluated for proper validity of intervention and outcome studies and for detection of clinical relevance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, S-221 85 Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: Fredrik.Tjernstrom@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: Fredrik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tjernström
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, S-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Måns
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Björklund
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, Section for Specialized Pain Rehabilitation and Centre for Research and Development, Skåne University Hospital, S-22185 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Eva-Maj
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Malmström
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D019415:Torque; D014732:Vibration; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Postural balance; Posture; Sensation disorders