Manual therapy
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Despite the paucity of research into the reliability of static palpation, it is still employed extensively as a diagnostic tool by manual medicine practitioners. This study tested the inter- and intra-examiner agreement of ten senior osteopathic students using static palpation on ten asymptomatic subjects. Four assessments of the posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS), sacral sulcus (SS), and the sacral inferior lateral angle (SILA) on every subject by all examiners resulted in 1200 assessments in total. ⋯ Inter-examiner agreement was slight (PSIS Kg=0.04; SILA Kg=0.08; SS Kg=0.07) and significant at the 0.01 level. Intra-examiner agreement was greater than inter-examiner agreement, which was consistent with existing palpation reliability studies. The poor reliability of clinical tests involving palpation may be partially explained by error in landmark location.