title: Absolute and relative reliability of lumbar interspinous process ultrasound imaging measurements.
abstract: [Purpose] The intra- and inter-examiner reliabilities of lumbar interspinous process distances measured by ultrasound imaging were examined. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were 10 males who had no history of orthopedic diseases or dysfunctions. Ten lumbar interspinous images from 360 images captured from 10 subjects were selected. The 10 images were measured by nine examiners. The lumbar interspinous process distance measurements were performed five times by each examiner. In addition, four of the nine examiners measured the distances again after 4 days for test-retest analysis. In statistical analysis, the intraclass correlation coefficient was used to investigate relative reliability, and Bland-Altman analysis was used to investigate absolute reliability. [Results] The intraclass correlation coefficients (1, 1) for intra-examiner reliability ranged from 0.985 to 0.998. For inter-rater reliability, the intraclass correlation coefficient (2, 1) was 0.969. The intraclass correlation coefficients (1, 2) for test-retest reliability ranged from 0.991 to 0.999. The Bland-Altman analysis results indicated no systematic error. [Conclusion] The results indicate that ultrasound measurements of interspinous process distance are highly reliable even when measured only once by a single person.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Science, Ryotokuji University, Japan; Graduate Course of Health and Social Services, Saitama Prefectural University, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryosuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tozawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Science, Ryotokuji University, Japan.
authors.forename: Munenori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katoh
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Science, Ryotokuji University, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidefumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aramaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Science, Ryotokuji University, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsubasa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawasaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Therapeutics, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishikawa
authors.affiliation: Graduate Course of Health and Social Services, Saitama Prefectural University, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsuneo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kumamoto
authors.affiliation: Graduate Course of Health and Social Services, Saitama Prefectural University, Japan.
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Fujinawa
keywords: Lumbar interspinous process; Reliability; Ultrasound imaging