| Sumario: | Background. Traditional volumetry based on Archimedes' principle is the gold standard for the measurement of limb volume, but the routine use of this technique is discouraged because of several disadvantages. Objective. The purpose of this study was to evaluate intraobserver and inter- observer reliability of direct measurements of wrist-hand volume using a new communicating vessels volumeter based on Pascal's law. Design. A reliability study was conducted. Methods. To evaluate the reliability of the communicating vessels volumeter in generating measurements, 30 hands of 15 participants (9 women, 6 men) were measured 3 times each by 3 observers, totaling 270 volumetric results. Results. Measurement time was short (X=3 minutes 42 seconds). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was .9977 for observer 1 and .9976 for observers 2 and 3. The interobserver ICC was .9998. The standard error of measurement was about 3 mL for all observers; the interobserver result was 1 mL. The interrater coefficient of variance (CV) was 1.15% for the series of 9 measurements collected for each segment; the intrarater CV was 1.20%. Limitations. No swollen hands were measured, and measurements were not compared with the gold standard technique. Thus, accuracy of the new volumeter was not determined in this study. Conclusion. A new device has been developed for plethysmography of the extremities, and the results of its use to measure the volume of the wrist-hand segment were reliable in both intraobserver and interobserver analyses.
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