The development and validation of a custom built device for assessing frontal knee joint laxity.

Introduction: This study reports the development and validation of a quantitative technique of assessing frontal knee joint laxity through a custom built device named KLICP. The objectives of this study were to determine: (i) the intra- and inter-rater reliability and (ii) the validity of the device when compared to real time ultrasound.

Methods: Twenty-five participants had their frontal knee joint laxity assessed by the KLICP, by manual varus/valgus tests and by ultrasound. Two raters independently assessed laxity manually by three repeated measurements, repeated at least 48h later. Results were validated by comparing them to the medial and lateral joint space opening measured by the ultrasound. Intraclass correlation coefficients and standard error of measurement reliability were calculated. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the correlation between the KLICP and the joint space.

Results: Intra-rater reliability (intra-session) for each rater was good on both sessions (0.91-0.98), intra-rater reliability (inter-sessions) was moderate to good (0.62-0.87), and inter-rater reliability (intra-session) was good (0.75-0.80). There is low agreement for intra-rater (inter-session) and for inter-rater (intra-session) reliability. The KLICP measurement has a significant positive fair to moderate correlation to the ultrasound measurement at the left (r: 0.61, p: 0.01) and right (r: 0.48, p: 0.02) knee in the valgus direction and at the left (r: 0.51, p: 0.01) and right (r: 0.39, p: 0.05) knee in the varus direction. There is low agreement between the KLICP and the RTU.

Conclusions: Reliability and agreement was good only when measured for intra-rater, within session.