Biyumikānīk-i varzishī (Sep 2022)

Evaluation of the Diagnostic Accuracy of Tests Used for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries: A Narrative Review

  • Farahnaz Emami,
  • saba abrishamkar,
  • Amin Kordi Yoosefinejad

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 2
pp. 128 – 140

Abstract

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Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the clinical tests used to assess the injuries of anterior cruciate ligament. Methods Electronic data bases including Science Direct, PubMed and Google Scholar were searched using related keywords with the aim of finding the articles that clinically evaluated the injuries of anterior cruciate ligament. The quality of the articles was evaluated by Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) scale. Results Ten articles were selected for final analysis. Regarding patient selection domain in risk of bias phase, an equal proportion was seen among low, unclear, and high risk. Regarding index test in risk of bias phase, 80% of the articles had low risk. Considering reference standard in risk of bias phase, 70% of the articles presented a low risk. Considering flow and timing domain in risk of bias phase, 40 % of articles showed either unclear or high risk. Also, for patient selection domain in applicability concerns, half of the articles had a low risk. Regarding index test in applicability concern phase, 80% of articles presented a low risk. Considering reference standard domain of articles in applicability concern phase, 40% had either unclear or low risk. Conclusion Despite the routine use of clinical tests for evaluating injuries of anterior cruciate ligament, due to factors such as different clinical experience and knowledge of the examiners, different time from ligament rupture, and different position of the patient during examination, there is still no consensus on using a test for diagnosis.

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