Clinical evaluation of the behavior of the transverse abdominal muscle in chronic nonspecific low back pain

Abstract

Keeping in consideration the importance of the transverse abdominal muscle (TRA) in the lumbopelvic stability becomes evident the need to test the inter-examiner reproducibility of clinical instruments to assess their function which will allow an appropriate physical therapy approach and a better understanding of the prognosis of non-specific low back pain. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the inter-examiner reproducibility of physiotherapists trained in using the clinical rating scale to assess the quality of the contraction of the deep abdominal muscles and thick measurement of transverse abdominal muscle through ultrasound images in patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain, and to evaluate the correlation between them and the stratification of the people with low back pain with the help of start back questionnaire. Methods: 10 individuals with non-specific chronic low back pain will be selected, aged 18 or older, of both genders, in addition, they must have 2 or more points on the Visual Analogue Scale and 2 or more points on the Roland Morris questionnaire; they will be also classified as low to medium risk prognosis in the Start Back questionnaire. For the implementation of the clinical instruments, two physical therapists will be selected and trained by a specialist in manual therapy and in ultrasound management. The two procedures will be applied in a single day by two trained physiotherapists, in random order, following the patient's preparation for a third volunteer expert of conduct to be applied. Data analysis: The inter-examiner reproducibility for each of the two evaluation procedures will be analyzed by statistical analysis Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and the association between procedures will be analyzed by Pearson correlation (r). For non-normally distributed data, median and inter-quartile ranges will be used to describe the sample, and Spearman correlation will be used for the association between procedures. (AU)