Agreement between visual and goniometric assessments of adductor and popliteal angles in infants

CONTEXT: Amiel-Tison method is a commonly used technique for assessing tone and neurological status of infants. There is a paucity of data on the reliability of visual assessment of angles, a component of this method. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We compared the visual and the goniometric assessment of adductor and popliteal angles in infants with hypertonia and neurologically normal controls. A total of 16 infants with hypertonia and 15 normal infants underwent blinded assessment of the adductor and popliteal angles. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The mean and standard deviation for the difference between visual and goniometric measurements were calculated for popliteal and adductor angles. RESULTS: The mean differences between visual and goniometric measurements for the popliteal angle were 4.94 (SD3.40) and 8.73 (SD6.10) degrees for the cases and controls respectively. Similarly, the values for adductor angle measurements were 8.94 (SD8.23) and 14.47 (SD8.47) degrees respectively. CONCLUSION: The deviation of visual assessment from goniometric measurement was found to be less for popliteal angle measurement as compared to adductor angle measurements. It was note-worthy that the difference was less for the measurements of children with spasticity.