Conclusions For most clinical tests in LBP there is not consistent evidence for an association with outcome .
Central ization and non-organic signs are exceptions from that .
Background There is a strong tradition of performing a clinical examination of low back pain ( LBP ) patients and this is generally recommended in guidelines .
However , establishing a pathoanatomic diagnosis does not seem possible in most LBP patients and clinical tests may potentially be more relevant as prognostic factors .
The aim of this review of the literature was to systematic ally assess the association between low-tech clinical tests commonly used in adult patients with acute , recurrent or chronic LBP and short- and long-term outcome .
Preliminary development of a clinical prediction rule for determining which patients with low back pain will respond to a stabilization exercise program.
OBJECTIVE To develop a clinical prediction rule to predict treatment response to a stabilization exercise program for patients with low back pain ( LBP ) . DESIGN A prospect i ve , cohort study of patients with nonradicular LBP referred to physical therapy ( PT ) . SETTING Outpatient PT clinics . PARTICIPANTS Fifty-four patients with nonradicular LBP . INTERVENTION A st and ardized stabilization exercise program . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Treatment response ( success or failure ) was categorized based on changes in the Oswestry Disability Question naire scores after 8 weeks . RESULTS Eighteen subjects were categorized as treatment successes , 15 as treatment failures , and 21 as somewhat improved . After using regression analyses to determine the association between st and ardized examination variables and treatment response status , preliminary clinical prediction rules were developed for predicting success ( positive likelihood ratio [ LR ] , 4.0 ) and failure ( negative LR , .18 ) . The most important variables were age , straight-leg raise , prone instability test , aberrant motions , lumbar hypermobility , and fear-avoidance beliefs . CONCLUSIONS It appears that the response to a stabilization exercise program in patients with LBP can be predicted from variables collected from the clinical examination . The prediction rules could be used to determine whether patients with LBP are likely to benefit from stabilization exercises
Conclusions For most clinical tests in LBP there is not consistent evidence for an association with outcome .
Central ization and non-organic signs are exceptions from that .
Background There is a strong tradition of performing a clinical examination of low back pain ( LBP ) patients and this is generally recommended in guidelines .
However , establishing a pathoanatomic diagnosis does not seem possible in most LBP patients and clinical tests may potentially be more relevant as prognostic factors .
The aim of this review of the literature was to systematic ally assess the association between low-tech clinical tests commonly used in adult patients with acute , recurrent or chronic LBP and short- and long-term outcome .