In vivo reproducibility of a new non-invasive diagnostic tool for three-dimensional knee evaluation

Essential steps in the development of a new diagnostic tool are the evaluation of its precision, its reproducibility and its reliability. In this paper, the experimental protocol for the evaluation of three-dimensional (3D) knee kinematics using a new 3D knee analyser developed for the pre- and post-operative evaluation of the ligament injured knee is presented. The results of an in vivo reproducibility study of the system on 16 healthy subjects are also exposed. For all subjects, an adjusted coefficient of multiple correlation R-a was calculated for 10 movements. We showed that for most subjects abduction/adduction and internal/external tibial rotation movement during 10 knee flexions was very reproducible. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.