Article

The purpose of this study was to determine intertester and intratester
reliability of ultrasound measurements of bilateral diaphragm excursions in the
thoracic and thoracolumbar spinal curves of 31 females with adolescent idiopathic
scoliosis (AIS) (mean age = 14.1 +/- 1.8 years). METHOD: Subjects were tested
during tidal breathing using real-time ultrasound imaging with a 3.5 MHz curvilinear transducer. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in
intratester and intertester reliability values in bilateral diaphragmatic
excursions measured at the thoracolumbar spinal curve, whereas significant
differences were observed in measurements taken at the thoracic spinal curve (p <
0.05). Overall, the intertester and intratester reliabilities of the thoracic and
thoracolumbar curves in AIS ranged from 0.764 to 0.998. CONCLUSIONS: These
findings suggest that ultrasound imaging is highly reliable between and within
testers and is useful to precisely discriminate pathological diaphragm movement
in idiopathic thoracic scoliosis and idiopathic thoracolumbar scoliosis.

Langue : ANGLAIS