Journal des nouvelles physiothérapies

Abstrait

Reliability and Asymmetry Profiles of Myotonometric Measurements in Healthy Skeletal Muscles

Wing Kai Lam, Damon Mok, Winson CC Lee and Bob Chen

Background: Myotonometric measurement provides information about the muscle properties before and after applying physiotherapy treatments. This study examined the reliability, the degree of side-to-side symmetry, and the muscle type effect of the myotonometric parameters.

Methods: Bilateral muscle stiffness, oscillation frequency and decrement of 11 different muscles during relaxed state were measured on 14 healthy male participants using a myometer over two consecutive days. Within-day and inter-day intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and absolute symmetry index (ASI) of measurements on each muscle site were calculated. Comparisons were made between the two muscle types and among the different test parameters.

Results: Muscle decrement had significantly lower within-day ICC than muscle stiffness (P<.01). Compared to tonic muscles, phasic type muscles had worse within-day ICC in muscle oscillation frequency measure (P<.05). Muscle decrement (13.8%) was significantly more asymmetric than muscle stiffness (8.7%, P<.01) and oscillation frequency (8.3%, P<.01). Gastrocnemius and Tibialis Anterior muscles demonstrated the highest degree of asymmetry (>20%) in the decrement measurement.

Conclusion: Myotonometric measurements are generally reliable for clinical muscle assessment. In analyzing and interpreting myotonomeric measurements, assessing muscle asymmetries should consider if the observed difference is due to measurement errors or intervention effects when involving such parameters and muscles.