ARTICLES: PDF OnlyUse of a Bicycle Ergometer for Limb Position Sense Testing During a Cyclic Lower Limb TaskBrown, David A. PT, PhD1; Katchuk, Holly DPT1 Author Information 1Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL ([email protected]) Neurology Report 27(2):p 61-66, Free Abstract Patients with neurologic impairments are tested for proprioceptive deficits using static or quasi-static techniques that are not applied within the context of a functional movement task. This study was conducted to determine if limb position sense (LPS) testing can be reliably measured during a dynamic cyclic task (eg, pedaling) and whether the accuracy of LPS will be affected by movement and is phasedependent. Experiments were performed with 16 young adult subjects. Subjects pedaled a bicycle ergometer while attempting to identify when their foot traveled through a specified target region. Errors were measured when they incorrectly identified that their foot was in a region outside of the target. Subjects were tested in active versus passive versus static modes, eyes-open versus eyes-closed, and at each of 7 target regions. The LPS test showed high reliability [ICC (1,1) ranged from 0.86 to 0.98]. Passive movement resulted in the least errors. During active movement, transition regions had the least errors and the mid-downstroke region had the most errors. Therefore LPS, tested during pedaling, was reliable and revealed movement and phasedependent position sense. © 2003 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
