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Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2012 Sep-Oct;55(2):e31-9. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2012.03.005. Epub 2012 Apr 13.
The MyotonPRO (Myoton Ltd; London) is a new portable device for measuring muscle mechanical properties (e.g. tone) and its reliability has yet to be established. Little is known about between-limb symmetry of mechanical properties in healthy older people, despite symmetry often being used as a measure of unilateral abnormalities in clinical assessment. Since quadriceps is important for mobility, it was selected for the present study.
To investigate: (i) between-day intra-rater reliability of a novice user of MyotonPRO; (ii) between-side symmetry of mechanical properties of quadriceps in older males.
Twenty healthy, community dwelling, right-lower-limb-dominant males (mean age 71.7, range 65-82 years) were studied. With the participant in relaxed supine lying, the MyotonPRO applied two consecutive sets of 10 taps to induce muscle oscillations of rectus femoris, from which measurements of decrement (elasticity), frequency (tone), and stiffness were obtained. Tests were performed on two occasions at the same time and day of the week, one week apart.
Repeated measurements had very high within-day (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC 3,1>0.90) and high between-day (ICC 3,2>0.70; mean of two measurement sets) reliability. There was no statistically significant difference between muscle mechanical properties of the dominant and non-dominant muscles (<2.5% difference; p>0.05), thereby indicating symmetry.
High intra-rater reliability was established for MyotonPRO measurements of quadriceps in healthy older males, which were symmetrical between sides. These findings indicate that larger studies are warranted to establish normal reference ranges of data with which to compare patients with muscle abnormalities.
MyotonPRO（Myoton Ltd；伦敦）是一种新的便携式设备，用于测量肌肉力学特性（例如张力），但其可靠性尚未确定。尽管对称性常被用作临床评估中单侧异常的衡量标准，但对于健康老年人，其肢体间力学特性的对称性知之甚少。由于股四头肌对于运动能力很重要，因此选择其进行本研究。
研究：（i）MyotonPRO 新手使用者的日内组内可靠性；（ii）老年男性股四头肌力学特性的肢体间对称性。
对 20 名健康、居住在社区、右侧下肢优势的男性（平均年龄 71.7 岁，范围 65-82 岁）进行了研究。在参与者放松仰卧的情况下，MyotonPRO 对股直肌施加两组连续的 10 次敲击，以引起肌肉振荡，从而获得弹性、频率和硬度的测量值。两次测试均在一周内同一时间和同一天进行。
重复测量具有非常高的日内（组内相关系数 ICC3,1>0.90）和高的日间（ICC3,2>0.70；两次测量的平均值）可靠性。优势和非优势肌肉的肌肉力学特性之间没有统计学上的显著差异（<2.5%的差异；p>0.05），表明具有对称性。
在健康老年男性中，MyotonPRO 对股四头肌的测量具有很高的组内可靠性，并且两侧之间具有对称性。这些发现表明，需要进行更大规模的研究来建立正常的参考数据范围，以便与肌肉异常的患者进行比较。
