Abstract
Reliability with regards to the evaluation of the ankle dorsal flexion range of motion (hereinafter referred to as "DFROM") is still low. DFROM measurements were tested using a hand-held dynamometer (hereinafter referred to as "HHD") in order to improve reliability of this measurement. The subjects were 10 patients with cerebrovascular disease (average age: 69.3 years old) with over three months from the onset, who had no history of foot orthopaedic diseases. DFROM measurement was carried out by applying pressure on the metatarsal bone head area of the sole of the foot in the dorsal flexion direction using the HHD, and DFROM was recorded with a digital camera. Three types of regression formula were created for the predictive value and DFROM at 100 N pressure was calculated by these regression formulas. Interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.99, "Excellent" for both actual measurements and the 3 types of predictive value. A point in common with previous studies that gave highly reliable measurements and this study is that constant pressure was applied in the dorsal extension direction when measuring DFROM.
