Article

The purpose of this investigation was to attempt to establish decision rules for
determining maximal effort production during isokinetic strength testing of
unilateral anterior cruciate ligament-deficient patients based on the degree of
strength curve consistency within a set. Thirty-three participants performed six
bilateral knee extension and flexion exertions at maximal effort and at 80% of
perceived maximum at testing velocities of 60 and 180 degrees s(-1). Within-set
consistency was quantified by computation of the variance ratio across strength
curves. Tolerance interval-based cutoff scores covering 99% of the population
were calculated for declaring efforts as being maximal or not at confidence
levels of 90%, 95%, and 99%. The sensitivity percentages attained for the injured
knee for both testing velocities ranged between 9.1% and 27.2%, while specificity
percentages ranged between 84.8% and 100%. For the non-injured knee, sensitivity
values for both testing velocities ranged between 21.2% and 45.0%, while
specificity percentages ranged between 97.0% and 100%.
The developed decision
rules do not effectively discriminate on an individual patient basis between
maximal and non-maximal isokinetic knee musculature efforts. Further research is
needed for development of methods that would enable to ascertain maximal effort
production in this patient population during knee muscle strength testing.

Langue : ANGLAIS