Subscribe to RSS

DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-3402453
Weightbearing Forefoot Axial Radiography - Technical Description and Reproducibility Evaluation[*]
Article in several languages: português | EnglishPublication History
24 July 2018
05 February 2019
Publication Date:
16 March 2020 (online)


Abstract
Objective The present study aims to describe a new weightbearing radiographic method to visualize the heads of the five metatarsals on the coronal plane, evaluating their accuracy through intraclass correlation coefficients.
Methods The subjects were evaluated, with weightbearing, with the ankle at 20 degrees of plantar flexion and the metatarsophalangeal joints at 10 degrees of extension, positioned on a wooden device. Two independent foot and ankle surgeons evaluated the radiography, with one of them doing it twice, at different moments, achieving an inter and intraobserver correlation, with intraclass correlation coefficients.
Results We radiographed 63 feet, achieving an interobserver correlation coefficient of the radiographic method for the metatarsal heads heights in the coronal plane of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th metatarsals of, respectively, 0.90, 0.85, 0.86, 0.83, 0.89. The intraobserver correlation coefficient were, respectively, 0.95, 0.93, 0.93, 0.86, 0.92.
Conclusion Those correlations demonstrate that the method is accurate and can be used to investigate metatarsal head misalignments in this plane.
Keywords
forefoot, human - radiography - metatarsalgia - metatarsal bones - foot diseases - metatarsophalangeal joint* Foot and ankle Group, Orthopedics and Traumatology Institute, Hospital das Clínicas HCFMUSP, Medicine School, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil