Smartphone Inclinometry Is a Valid and Reliable Tool for Measuring Frontal Plane Tibial Alignment in Healthy and Osteoarthritic Knees.

OBJECTIVE Frontal plane knee alignment plays an integral role in tibiofemoral knee osteoarthritis development and progression. Accessible methods for obtaining direct or indirect measures of knee alignment may help inform clinical decision-making when specialized equipment is unavailable. The current study evaluated the concurrent validity, as well as intersession (within-rater) and interrater (within-session) reliability of smartphone inclinometry for measuring static frontal plane tibial alignment-a known proxy of frontal plane knee alignment. METHODS Twenty healthy individuals and thirty-eight patients with knee osteoarthritis were measured for frontal plane tibial alignment by a pair of raters using smartphone inclinometry, manual inclinometry, and three-dimensional motion capture simultaneously. Healthy participants were measured on two separate days. Bland-Altman analysis, supplemented with ICC(2,k), was used to assess concurrent validity. ICC(2,k), standard error of measurement (SEM), and minimum detectable change with 95% confidence limits (MDC95) were used to assess measurement reliability. RESULTS Compared against motion capture, smartphone inclinometry measured frontal plane tibial alignment with a mean difference of 0.7 and 1.1 degrees (biased towards varus) for healthy participants and participants with knee osteoarthritis, respectively [ICC(2,k) ≥ 0.87]. Smartphone inclinometry measurements demonstrated adequate intersession (within-rater) relative [ICC(2,k) = 0.91] and absolute (SEM = 0.7 degrees; MDC95 = 1.8 degrees ) reliability, which outperformed manual inclinometry [ICC(2,k) = 0.85; SEM = 1.0 degree; MDC95 = 2.6 degrees]. Interrater (within-session) reliability of smartphone inclinometry was acceptable in both cohorts [ICC(2,k) = 0.93; SEM = 0.4 degrees to 1.2 degrees; MDC95 = 1.2 degrees to 3.2 degrees]. CONCLUSIONS Smartphone inclinometry is sufficiently valid and reliable for measuring frontal plane tibial alignment in healthy individuals and patients with medial tibiofemoral knee osteoarthritis. IMPACT Smartphones are readily accessible by clinicians and researchers. Our assessment of measurement validity and reliability supports the use of smartphone inclinometry as a clinically available tool to measure frontal plane tibial alignment without medical imaging or specialized equipment.