Prevalência do erro diagnóstico na avaliação postural tradicional da cifose torácica

Abstract

Introduction: The conventional measures of postural evaluation are being replaced by others more objective and precise methods. Among those, there is one that distinguishes by its confidence, the flexicurve method. The present trial has the goal of comparing the results obtained on the assessment of thoracic kyphosis, using the flexicurve method and the traditional methods, inspection and touching, from postural evaluation. Methodology: There were made 119 postural evaluations of four models previously chosen among the flexicurve method, the angles of thoracic kyphosis varied from normal (20º) to hyperkyphosis (>40º). Thirty five evaluators where randomized as 20 physiotherapy students from the 9th semester, 11 from 10th semester and 4 physiotherapists who are teachers. It was allowed to each evaluator to do the postural assessment using the touch and/or the inspection. The results were than compared with the real angles of each model, measured by the flexicurve method. Results: It was found a total diagnosis error of 46% between the functional evaluation and the real measure. The teachers and students from 9th and 10th semesters had an error index of 42,9%; 55,9% and 31,8%, respectively. The diagnosis of hyperkyphosis appeared with the frequency of 78,6%; 60,0% and 24,2% for all the models in the normal standards, with angles of 23,98%; 31,3% and 39,67%¨, respectively. Conclusion: There is a need of a quantitative method on postural evaluation, for a more precise diagnosis, due to the high amount of error. There was an inclination to the diagnosis of hyperkyphosis.