Measures common name (review article) | What is assessed | Reliability | Validity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Subjective | Grading contraction, pressure around finger/s (4-point scale) | – | – | |
Modified Oxford scale [18] | Grading contraction, pressure around fingers, Poisson effect (as muscle is contracted, it expands a bulging up) (6-point scale) | r = 0.27–0.95 (inter-rater) [49,50,51,52,53] r = 0.93 (test–retest) [50] | Correlation with perineometric pressure 0.79 [50] Contaminated by IAP | |
A self-rated PFM strength question [20] | Self-reported improvement of PFM strength | – | – | |
Objective | Maximum voluntary vaginal closure pressure (mm Hg) | r = 0.79–0.80 (inter-rater) [54] | Good agreement with Brink digital exam score [55] Contaminated by IAP | |
Maximum voluntary vaginal closure pressure (mm Hg) | r = 0.52–0.85 (test–retest) [56] | Contaminated by IAP [57] | ||
Needle EMG: quantitative EMG [22] | Muscle electrical activity from individual motor units (in microvolt units) | r = 0.89 (range 0.78–0.95) [22] hard to repeat | Not possible to measure contractile force using EMG [58] Contaminated by IAP | |
Surface EMG (vaginally): quantitative EMG [25] | Muscle electrical activities from summated from many motor units (millivolt) | Between-visit ICC ranging 0.76–0.97 [59] | Measured PFM activity other than vaginal closure pressure | |
A handheld dynamometer (mTasMF-01, ANIMA, Japan) [19] | Hip adductor muscle strength | – | Not measure PFM strength | |
Sagittal dynamic (perineal) ultrasound [27] | Cephalic displacement (in mm) of the bladder neck in a sagittal view available as biofeedback (as opposed to caudal movement observable when she pushes down instead) | r = 0.52–0.96 (intra-rater) [62] | Visual “lift” of the bladder neck with a correct PFM contraction |