A QUANTIFIABLE APPROACH IN THE COMPARISON OF ISOKINETIC ASSESSMENT DATA - NEW CORRELATION EQUATIONS FOR THE JOHNSON ANTISHEAR DEVICE AND STANDARD SHIN PAD IN THE ISOKINETIC ASSESSMENT OF THE KNEE

The rehabilitation of the knee with a deficient anterior cruciate liga ment (ACL) always presents a great challenge. Isokinetic assessment al lows muscle performance to be quantified. The antishear device, introd uced by Johnson, has the distinct advantage of minimizing the anterior translation force during isokinetic exercise. In a previous report, t here was a significant difference between the Johnson double pad antis hear device and the standard single pad device in knee extension. The main purpose of this study was to define a correlation equation such t hat data generated in the use of the two different devices can be comp ared for assessment. Ten subjects were tested with the Cybex isokineti c dynamometer with a randomly selected sequence of test speeds. Correl ation coefficient (r), regression analysis and paired t tests (P) were performed to estimate the correlation and difference between the two devices. It is concluded that a significant difference in the data gen erated between the two devices indicated that a single device should b e selected to carry out a series of comparisons on a particular subjec t. However, if the two devices are used in a series of testings, a set of correlation equations has been defined to facilitate such comparis on. The findings in this study will widen the application of compariso n of isokinetic data in the quantitative approach of rehabilitation of the knee with a deficient anterior cruciate ligament.