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Intra-assessor reliability and measurement error of ultrasound measures for foot muscle morphology in older adults using a tablet-based ultrasound machine

BACKGROUND: To gain insight into the role of plantar intrinsic foot muscles in fall-related gait parameters in older adults, it is fundamental to assess foot muscles separately. Ultrasonography is considered a promising instrument to quantify the strength capacity of individual muscles by assessing...

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Autores principales: Willemse, Lydia, Wouters, Eveline J. M., Pisters, Martijn F., Vanwanseele, Benedicte
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8788121/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35078499
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13047-022-00510-1
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author Willemse, Lydia
Wouters, Eveline J. M.
Pisters, Martijn F.
Vanwanseele, Benedicte
author_facet Willemse, Lydia
Wouters, Eveline J. M.
Pisters, Martijn F.
Vanwanseele, Benedicte
author_sort Willemse, Lydia
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: To gain insight into the role of plantar intrinsic foot muscles in fall-related gait parameters in older adults, it is fundamental to assess foot muscles separately. Ultrasonography is considered a promising instrument to quantify the strength capacity of individual muscles by assessing their morphology. The main goal of this study was to investigate the intra-assessor reliability and measurement error for ultrasound measures for the morphology of selected foot muscles and the plantar fascia in older adults using a tablet-based device. The secondary aim was to compare the measurement error between older and younger adults and between two different ultrasound machines. METHODS: Ultrasound images of selected foot muscles and the plantar fascia were collected in younger and older adults by a single operator, intensively trained in scanning the foot muscles, on two occasions, 1–8 days apart, using a tablet-based and a mainframe system. The intra-assessor reliability and standard error of measurement for the cross-sectional area and/or thickness were assessed by analysis of variance. The error variance was statistically compared across age groups and machines. RESULTS: Eighteen physically active older adults (mean age 73.8 (SD: 4.9) years) and ten younger adults (mean age 21.9 (SD: 1.8) years) participated in the study. In older adults, the standard error of measurement ranged from 2.8 to 11.9%. The ICC ranged from 0.57 to 0.97, but was excellent in most cases. The error variance for six morphology measures was statistically smaller in younger adults, but was small in older adults as well. When different error variances were observed across machines, overall, the tablet-based device showed superior repeatability. CONCLUSIONS: This intra-assessor reliability study showed that a tablet-based ultrasound machine can be reliably used to assess the morphology of selected foot muscles in older adults, with the exception of plantar fascia thickness. Although the measurement errors were sometimes smaller in younger adults, they seem adequate in older adults to detect group mean hypertrophy as a response to training. A tablet-based ultrasound device seems to be a reliable alternative to a mainframe system. This advocates its use when foot muscle morphology in older adults is of interest. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13047-022-00510-1.
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spelling pubmed-87881212022-02-03 Intra-assessor reliability and measurement error of ultrasound measures for foot muscle morphology in older adults using a tablet-based ultrasound machine Willemse, Lydia Wouters, Eveline J. M. Pisters, Martijn F. Vanwanseele, Benedicte J Foot Ankle Res Research BACKGROUND: To gain insight into the role of plantar intrinsic foot muscles in fall-related gait parameters in older adults, it is fundamental to assess foot muscles separately. Ultrasonography is considered a promising instrument to quantify the strength capacity of individual muscles by assessing their morphology. The main goal of this study was to investigate the intra-assessor reliability and measurement error for ultrasound measures for the morphology of selected foot muscles and the plantar fascia in older adults using a tablet-based device. The secondary aim was to compare the measurement error between older and younger adults and between two different ultrasound machines. METHODS: Ultrasound images of selected foot muscles and the plantar fascia were collected in younger and older adults by a single operator, intensively trained in scanning the foot muscles, on two occasions, 1–8 days apart, using a tablet-based and a mainframe system. The intra-assessor reliability and standard error of measurement for the cross-sectional area and/or thickness were assessed by analysis of variance. The error variance was statistically compared across age groups and machines. RESULTS: Eighteen physically active older adults (mean age 73.8 (SD: 4.9) years) and ten younger adults (mean age 21.9 (SD: 1.8) years) participated in the study. In older adults, the standard error of measurement ranged from 2.8 to 11.9%. The ICC ranged from 0.57 to 0.97, but was excellent in most cases. The error variance for six morphology measures was statistically smaller in younger adults, but was small in older adults as well. When different error variances were observed across machines, overall, the tablet-based device showed superior repeatability. CONCLUSIONS: This intra-assessor reliability study showed that a tablet-based ultrasound machine can be reliably used to assess the morphology of selected foot muscles in older adults, with the exception of plantar fascia thickness. Although the measurement errors were sometimes smaller in younger adults, they seem adequate in older adults to detect group mean hypertrophy as a response to training. A tablet-based ultrasound device seems to be a reliable alternative to a mainframe system. This advocates its use when foot muscle morphology in older adults is of interest. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13047-022-00510-1. BioMed Central 2022-01-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8788121/ /pubmed/35078499 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13047-022-00510-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Willemse, Lydia
Wouters, Eveline J. M.
Pisters, Martijn F.
Vanwanseele, Benedicte
Intra-assessor reliability and measurement error of ultrasound measures for foot muscle morphology in older adults using a tablet-based ultrasound machine
title Intra-assessor reliability and measurement error of ultrasound measures for foot muscle morphology in older adults using a tablet-based ultrasound machine
title_full Intra-assessor reliability and measurement error of ultrasound measures for foot muscle morphology in older adults using a tablet-based ultrasound machine
title_fullStr Intra-assessor reliability and measurement error of ultrasound measures for foot muscle morphology in older adults using a tablet-based ultrasound machine
title_full_unstemmed Intra-assessor reliability and measurement error of ultrasound measures for foot muscle morphology in older adults using a tablet-based ultrasound machine
title_short Intra-assessor reliability and measurement error of ultrasound measures for foot muscle morphology in older adults using a tablet-based ultrasound machine
title_sort intra-assessor reliability and measurement error of ultrasound measures for foot muscle morphology in older adults using a tablet-based ultrasound machine
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8788121/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35078499
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13047-022-00510-1
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