A systematic review of the objectivity and reliability of human palpation of the cranial rhythmic impulse (CRI).
Item
- Title
- A systematic review of the objectivity and reliability of human palpation of the cranial rhythmic impulse (CRI).
- Author(s)
- Levitan Ruth
- Abstract
- The Cranial Rhythmic Impulse (CRI) is used in the assessment of patients and teaching of students by cranial practioners. Evidence for the existence of the CRI rhythm has been shown in research literature. Very little research however could be found which verified that the CRI could be accurately and reliably palpated by different examiners. The aim of this study therefore was to conduct a systematic review of the literature in order to establish what research has been undertaken which evaluates the objectivity and reliability of CRI palpation between different examiners.Method. For this purpose, a computerised and manual literature search was performed using the Medline, followed by critical assessment of methodologies of the studies. The main outcome measures were scores for methodological quality based on four main categories (study population, procedure reported, outcome and data analysis), subjective conclusions of authors and objective findings.Results. Only six studies were found which met search criteria. The top scoring study scored 71 points with the next highest scoring study only achieving 56 out of a total of 100 points, indicating the poor quality of the majority of the studies. All studies found poor interrater reliably based on CRI rate as the outcome measure. Two of the studies found intrarater reliability to be high, the results however have to be treated with caution as recall bias was not taken into account.Conclusion. The validity of using the CRI as a clinical tool is still unclear. To date there is no evidence to show that different examiners can objectively and reliably palpate the CRI rate. A need exists for more controlled experiments to evaluate not only the CRI rate but other aspects of CRI used in the clinical process.
- Abstract
- presented at
- British School of Osteopathy
- Date Accepted
- 1999
- Date Submitted
- 11.8.2000 00:00:00
- Type
- undergraduate_project
- Language
- English
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 12251
- Inst-Identifier
- 780
- Keywords
- Palpation,Cranial Rhythm,Cranial Osteopathy,Systematic Reviews
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Levitan Ruth, “A systematic review of the objectivity and reliability of human palpation of the cranial rhythmic impulse (CRI).”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed April 22, 2025, https://library.wso.at/s/orw/item/2219