Test-retest intra-rater reliability of vaginal measurement of pelvic floor muscle strength using Myomed 932.

摘要

OBJECTIVES: To investigate test-retest intra-rater reliability of measurements of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) strength using Myomed 932 (Enraf-Nonius, Delft, the Netherlands). DESIGN: Test-retest intra-rater reliability test with a 2-7 day interval. SETTING: Physiotherapy outpatient clinic in association with the Department of Physiotherapy, University of Iceland. POPULATION: Twenty healthy female volunteers in Reykjavik metropolitan area, Iceland, with a mean age of 43.8 (SD 9.8) years, mean body mass index (BMI) 26.2 (SD 5.3), and mean parity 2.1 children (SD 1.0). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: PFM strength during two attempts of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) measured as vaginal squeeze pressure in hectoPascals (hPa). RESULTS: Mean MVC was 34.45 hPa (95% CI: 26.07-42.83) on Day 1 and 34.05 hPa (95% CI: 26.66-41.44) on Day 2. The measurements ranged from 5-74 hPa interindividually on Day 1 and 5-62 hPa on Day 2. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was 0.97; p < 0.001 and coefficient of variation (CV%) was 11.09%. There was no significant difference between the first and second tests (p = 0.74). CONCLUSION: This test-retest intra-rater reliability study for Myomed 932 showed a very good reliability using ICC. The CV%, however, indicated some degree of intra-individual variation. We suggest that this device can be used both in practice and clinical trials for assessing female PFM strength.