RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Traditional volumetry based on Archimedes' principle is the gold standard for the measurement of limb volume, but the routine use of this technique is discouraged because of several disadvantages. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate intraobserver and interobserver reliability of direct measurements of wrist-hand volume using a new communicating vessels volumeter based on Pascal's law. DESIGN: A reliability study was conducted. METHODS: To evaluate the reliability of the communicating vessels volumeter in generating measurements, 30 hands of 15 participants (9 women, 6 men) were measured 3 times each by 3 observers, totaling 270 volumetric results. RESULTS: Measurement time was short (X =3 minutes 42 seconds). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was .9977 for observer 1 and .9976 for observers 2 and 3. The interobserver ICC was .9998. The standard error of measurement was about 3 mL for all observers; the interobserver result was 1 mL. The interrater coefficient of variance (CV) was 1.15% for the series of 9 measurements collected for each segment; the intrarater CV was 1.20%. Limitations No swollen hands were measured, and measurements were not compared with the gold standard technique. Thus, accuracy of the new volumeter was not determined in this study. CONCLUSION: A new device has been developed for plethysmography of the extremities, and the results of its use to measure the volume of the wrist-hand segment were reliable in both intraobserver and interobserver analyses.