Intrarater reliability of a new method and instrumentation for measuring passive supination and pronation: a preliminary study.

Because of the clinical impression that traditional forearm goniometry has several potential sources of error and is therefore inherently unreliable, a new method using a newly designed goniometer was compared with traditional forearm passive range-of-motion goniometry. The new method utilized an offset face with a plumbline design and a patient-held tubular handle. Thirty orthopedic patients (31 wrists) were measured by three experienced hand therapists in a test-retest protocol to determine the reliability of both the traditional and new methods. Both the intraclass correlation coefficients and standard error of the measure showed improved scores with the new goniometric technique, compared with the traditional one. The differences between methods may not be clinically significant.