RELIABILITY OF THE TESTS USED FOR PREDICTING THE PRESENCE OF PALMARIS LONGUS MUSCLE

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the intra-observer and inter-observer reliability of nine tests used for predicting the presence of palmaris longus muscle. Methods: Three observers tested the presence of palmaris longus muscle three different times on each of the 52 subjects’ right and left wrists. The interobserver agreement was evaluated using Cohen’s Kappa statistics. And the intraobserver agreement was evaluated using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. Results: Inter-observer agreements, defined by kappa, varied from 0.293 (slight) to 0.687 (substantial) (p<0.001 for all), while intra-observer agreements varied from 0.691(substantial) to 0.885 (almost perfect) (p<0.001 for all). Conclusions: Many of the current tests used for determining the presence of palmaris longus tendon have substantial interobserver reliability. As the testing experience of the observers improves, the agreement rates increase too.