Abstract
[Purpose] The purpose of study was to examine the reproducibility of evaluation of gastrocnemius muscle length (Achilles tendon length and muscle belly length) using a digital caliper and ultrasound images in adults with cerebral palsy. [Subjects] Nine adults with cerebral palsy (35 ± 9.2years) and 10 normally developing adults (22 ± 0.8 years) participated in this study. [Methods] The apex of the medial femoral condyle, the transition of the tendon and muscle, proximal point of the calcaneus were determined using ultrasound images. The distances were measured between these three points, twice. Reproducibility was analyzed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). [Results] ICC were 0.93-0.98 for adults with cerebral palsy and 0.76-0.99 for normally developing adults. [Conclusion] The reproducibility of measurements of subjects was excellent cerebral palsy. We suggest that this method can be effectively used to evaluate therapeutic effects in cerebral palsy.
