VALIDITY EVIDENCE OF TWO PARTIAL WEIGHT BEARING LOWER EXTREMITY PERFORMANCE TESTS: SENSITIVE TO GAIN. Daniel Cipriani; Bernadette Noone*; Sheila Tobe Physical Therapy, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, OH PURPOSE: To test the ability of two PWB tests to measure gain in performance, in patients with lower extremity dysfunction BACKGROUNDS/SIGNIFICANCE: Physical Therapists are limited in their ability to measure lower extremity (LE) performance in individuals with partial weight- bearing (PWB) status. Measuring LE performance early in the rehabilitation process is essential in order to document progress and predict future functional status. Two LE performance tests were developed, using a commercially available sliding incline apparatus, to measure PWB performance of individuals with limited weight bearing status. SUBJECTS: Patients with lower extremity dysfunction (n = 21) participated. Diagnoses ranged from joint dysfunction (e.g., meniscus, synovitis, osteoarthritis) to total knee replacements or anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Apparatus: The PWB tests were performed on a commercially available sliding incline platform apparatus. Procedures: All patients were tested with the following: a timed 30 repetition, one-legged PWB squat test on the sliding incline apparatus; a count of one-legged PWB squats in 20 seconds, on the sliding incline apparatus; time to ascend stairs; time to descend stairs; distance of a one-legged hop; walking speed. Patients were tested initially and then a second time, following three to four weeks of therapy. ANALYSES: Two-way ANOVA was used to compare the rate of improvement between the healthy and injured leg for each of the single leg tests (i.e., the two PWB tests and the hop test); paired t-tests were used to test for improvement on the stair climbing tests and the walking test. RESULTS: Both the involved and uninvolved legs improved over the three to four weeks of therapy; the involved leg improved at a significantly greater rate than the uninvolved leg (p < .05). In addition, all subjects improved in walking speed and stair climbing ability (p < .05). The two PWB tests were sensitive to the gains made in these patients and the two tests were sensitive to the differences in rate of gain of the involved vs. the uninvolved LE. CONCLUSIONS: Two new PWB tests may provide early measures of lower extremity performance in the rehabilitation setting. FUNDING SOURCE: This study was funded by Engineering Fitness International (San Diego, CA), $4275.00. KEYWORDS: function, measurement, validity, knee, orthopedic Copyright 2009 by the American Physical Therapy Association. Requests for reprints should be directed to the corresponding author of the article. Educators, students, and other academic customers may receive permission to reprint copyrighted material from Physical Therapy (ISSN 1538-6724) by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center Inc, 222 Rosewood Dr, Danvers, MA 01923. Other types of customers who want permission to reprint should contact the APTA Editorial Office, Attn: Physical Therapy.