The Falcon Test: An Observer Agreement Study in Subjects With and Without Anterior Knee Pain.
Michael T Cibulka, Payton Wunderlich, Hayden Klockenga and 2 others
PMID 37020445WHAT IT FOUND
The Falcon test showed almost perfect agreement between and within raters for measuring rectus femoris length.
It was more reliable than the Thomas test for detecting differences in people with anterior knee pain, though this group was small and had low pain levels.
Key findings
01The Falcon test demonstrated almost perfect intra-rater and inter-rater reliability in the full sample.
02There was no statistically significant difference in rectus femoris length between participants with and without anterior knee pain.
03The minimal detectable change for the Falcon test was 3.6 degrees.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was underpowered to detect differences in rectus femoris length between groups, with only 16 participants having anterior knee pain. Participants with anterior knee pain had very low pain levels (mean current pain 1/10), which may not represent typical patients with this condition. The sample was predominantly female and younger than average (mean age 22.7 years). The test required two therapists to perform as described, though the authors note this could be mitigated with different equipment.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the Falcon test can reliably distinguish between patients with and without anterior knee pain. The study found no significant difference in muscle length between these groups, and the subgroup with pain was small and had minimal symptoms.