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Applied kinesiology Test protocol

Discussion in 'Biomechanics, Sports and Foot orthoses' started by Robertisaacs, Jan 24, 2011.

  1. TedJed

    TedJed Active Member

    Yes, I follow your logic there Eric. The test used and described though, has the subject extending their arm in the frontal plane (sideways away from the body), not the sagittal plane. This means they have a wider base of gait to stabilise against the ipsilateral downward force applied.

    You're right in that other muscles will be recruited (postural paraspinal muscles to resist lateral flexion in the direction of the side arm being used to name but one). Any clinical muscle testing will involve recruiting muscles in addition to those being 'isolated'. There is just no avoiding this in a clinical test of this nature. Is this enough to invalidate the test altogether? I'm not so sure...

    Ted.
     
  2. I'd say not. If there was a repeatable change in muscle power in the upper body with change in foot condition (beyond the psychological effect) I'd not be fussed whether it was one muscle or 5.

    If...
     
  3. TedJed

    TedJed Active Member

    Cool, I'm happy with that.

    TJ
     
  4. Interesting discussion. Any external force applied to the body during this "exam" or "test" would best be applied by an apparatus that could, time after time, apply the same magnitude of force with the same three-dimensional vector of force with each "test". In these "standing balance tests", even though the point of application of force may be constant from test to test, even a small change in the three dimensional location of the force vector will change not only the effect on the muscles supporting the hand but will change the ability of that force to perturb the body away from a standing balanced position.

    I would be very impressed if, when the test conditions were controlled scientifically, that any of these tests were found to be valid and reproducible indicators of musculoskeletal dysfunction.
     
  5. For me the huge source of error remains the ideomotor thing. We KNOW that that can produce strong / weak readings. Whatever the vector or volume of force that can still provide us with false readings.
     
  6. efuller

    efuller MVP

    You will still need to control foot placement. They need to be the same distance apart for each test condition.

    Eric
     
  7. TedJed

    TedJed Active Member

    Practically speaking Eric, the subject simply lifts one foot up as the intervention is placed or removed. The foot placement 'effectively' remains the same. This will not be so easy to do though if Robert is planning on using an 'insert' inside a shoe to blind the subject from the intervention being tested. I have no doubt though that Robert has already factored this into the equation...

    Ted.
     
  8. Certainly have ;).

    I've been playing with ak, copying from teds video and using a strain guage. Found some very interesting stuff.

    Sometimes the resistance IS lower.
    Other times the subject perceives it's lower when it isn't.
    The rate at which the force is applied is significant
    People can be made to be either stronger or weaker with the 1,5 raise. And indeed both.

    Just ironing out wrinkles in the technique. Interesting stuff though!!
     
  9. TedJed

    TedJed Active Member

    Oh you are such a tease...!
     
  10. CraigT

    CraigT Well-Known Member

    So gents... did you do the test? Results?... conclusions???
     
  11. TedJed

    TedJed Active Member

    Hi Craig,

    It was a really interesting exercise, I must say. The results seem to suggest that the answer(s) lean closer to Robert's position than mine. I must say I have a greater appreciation for the Ideometer Effect than prior to the test. Meaning, I was amazed at the volume of mental activity my mind was undertaking while being blinded and trying to remain impartial while performing the muscle tests.

    Robert will be assessing the results but our initial discussions have suggested we need to do a 'single blinded' test to cater for a response pattern that neither of us were anticipating. Sorry for the vagueness here Craig, but the 'results analysis' is Robert's field of expertise, not mine. Robert is going to be indisposed for a while so we will have to wait for him to report.

    I will be returning to London in September and Robert and I are planning a 're-match'.

    As is so often the case, the test raised more questions than answers... The quest continues!

    Ted.
     
  12. If I've done it right there should be a pdf attatched (would'nt do it as an xl:confused:). with the raw data I've ordered the data by test condition.

    A is with nothing underfoot. This is the condition used to establish baseline resistance in test 1 (uppercase A).

    C was the 1 and 5 shaft pads we were mainly interested in.

    B was pre met dome and D was a valgus heel wedge (I think, I'm away from my main data). These were included to see if there was a correlation with anything perceived as a test state. A and C were the ones we were interested in!

    In short,

    A, Base state, was tested 17 times (not counting baseline). It returned 5 counts of weak and 12 of strong. Thats 70.6% of tests were "strong"

    C, the main test state, was tested 24 times. It returned 4 counts of weak and 20 of strong. Thats 83.3% strong

    So based on this test, with 5 subjects and double blinded conditions, an insole with a 6mm evalon shaft under the 1st and 5th met heads made the subject about 13% more likely to get a "strong" test than a weak one. Although I've not run that through a t test I suspect thats not a big enough difference to be statistically significant.

    My thanks to Ted for having the courage to put his beliefs through rather significant scientific rigour, to Mike for doing a great job of data collection, and to our 5 willing subjects.

    As Ted intimated, the next experiment (if it comes to pass) will be single blinded. That is we will allow the subjects to know that it is a study to see if the 1/5 shafts will weaken the arm, and allow them to be aware of what is going under their feet, but still blind the tester to the condition. Thus to see if we get a pattern then. If we do then we will have a good idea that the ideomotor effect involved is on the part of the subject, not the tester. If not, we'll need a new experiment.
     

    Attached Files:

  13. Robert, you need to establish the correct manner in which to analyse and present this data. To do that, you first need to be crystal clear on your hypotheses. I haven't really given it too much thought, but I can tell you that it won't be a t-test.

    Go see what you can learn about statistical testing (it'll be good for you) and come back to me privately if you get stuck.

     
  14. Wilco skipper. I just wanted to give up the raw data, since people have been asking.
     
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