Lüdtke R, Seeber N, Kunz B, Ring J
Kinesiologie in der Allergiediagnostik
In: Albrecht H, Frühwald M, eds. Jahrbuch der Karl und Veronica Carstens-Stiftung, Band 2 (1995). Stuttgart: Hippokrates; 1996: 54-64.
To assess reliability and validity of the kinesiologic muscle test in patients allergic to wasp venom.
Materials and Methods
5 patients with clinically confirmed wasp venom allergies were evaluated independently by four health kinesiologists. Each rater tested each patient in a random order for 10 verum (wasp venom) and 10 placebo (sodium chloride) bottles. Patients and raters were completely blinded.
Results
The overall intraclass kappa coefficient is estimated by 0.03 (95%-CI: -0.02 to 0.07). This indicates non-reliability. Individual kappas do not substantially vary from rater to rater but validity indices do: the frequencies of correct diagnoses range from 24 to 61 percent of all verum tests (sensitivity) and from 50 to 68 percent of all placebo tests (specificity).
Conclusions
The results of our study suggest that the use of health kinesiology as a diagnostic tool is no more useful than random guessing. The reliability is definitively far away from diagnostic relevance where kappas between 0.8 and 1.0 are expected. Consequently validity cannot be satisfactory. In our study specificity may be underestimated because patients also may be sensible to sodium chloride and show 'weak muscles' with placebo. Our findings agree to negative results of similar studies that were performed in patients with nutrient deficiencies or lactose malabsorptions.
Kinesiology as a Diagnostic Method for Allergies [ Details ]