Article

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review evidence for the reliability of real-time
brightness-mode ultrasound for assessing skeletal muscle size in human limbs in
vivo and to establish in which populations and anatomical sites the reliability
had been tested. DATA SOURCES: Articles were retrieved via electronic database
searching and expert contact. Studies reporting reliability
indices of test-retest measures of real-time brightness-mode ultrasound measures
of skeletal muscle size within human limbs were included. DATA EXTRACTION:
Articles were assessed for methodological quality by two reviewers, decisions
were made by consensus. Participant characteristics, measurement protocol,
ultrasound protocol, type of reliability measured and statistical methods were
extracted by one reviewer. DATA SYNTHESIS: Twenty-four articles were included,
involving 605 participants. Studies were of low to moderate methodological
quality. Most studies were conducted within the healthy population. Only one
study demonstrated poor reliability at one site only, and only when the
participants were measured in the supine position. CONCLUSION: There is a
moderate amount of low-level evidence that real-time brightness-mode ultrasound
has good reliability for measuring muscle size across a number of limb sites in
healthy populations. There is limited evidence for the reliability of ultrasound
measures of muscle size in clinical populations.

Langue : ANGLAIS