Inter-Rater Reliability of Pain Provocation Tests for Painful Lumbar Facet Joints. A Pilot Study

Abstract Background With a life-time prevalence of 39%, low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders. Correct diagnosis of underlying causes is commonly seen as a prerequisite for successful therapy of LBP. Currently, there is no useful, non-invasive clinical test to diagnose painful lumbar zygapophyseal joints. Clinical tests with high diagnostic accuracy are therefore desirable. Inter-rater reliability is commonly seen as a prerequisite of test validity. The objective of this pilot study was thus to evaluate inter-rater reliability of new clinical pain provocation tests for diagnosin…