The palpation meter (palm) is reliable for measuring scapular upward rotation in the coronal plane

Abstract

The objective of the study was to assess intra-session inter-rater reliability of the palpation meter (PALM) to assess scapular position in the coronal plane. Twenty shoulders of 10 asymptomatic participants (4 males, 6 females) were screened. The mean age of the participants was 29.86 years (STD = 7.8 years). PALM measurements were used to calculate the rotation angle of the scapula in the coronal plane. Intra- and inter-rater reliability intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC3.1 and ICC2.1) were calculated. Measurement error was evaluated via calculation of standard error of measure and minimal detectable change. ICC2.1 scores ranged between 0.74 to 0.88 (SEM= 0.18cm-0.20cm, MDC95%=0.50cm-0.55cm) for inter-rater reliability for PALM measurements. It was concluded that the palmmeter was has excellent intra-reliability and good inter-rater reliability as a tool to measure horizontal distance of the scapula from the spine. These measures can be used to calculate scapular rotation. These methods developed to quantify scapular rotation could provide an objective measure of scapular rotation which is inexpensive, practical and easy to perform.