초록
Objectives : The purpose of this study is to investigate the repeatability and reproducibility of the Ryodoraku acupuncture device. For such device to be accepted as a good apparatus for clinical diagnosis, the score it provides should be stable no matter who measure it or when it is measured, assuming all other conditions equal. Materials and Methods : Three oriental medical doctors who were well trained and fully aware of the usage of the Ryodoraku acupuncture device examined ten randomly selected patients three times. Each doctor measured the Ryodoraku scores three times from each of the 10 selected patients. Three doctors were involved in this experiment to investigate the reproducibility and each of them measured the Ryodoraku scores three times from each patient to investigate the repeatability. Data was analyzed with Friedman test, Spearman correlation test, and intra-class correlation coefficient(ICC) in SPSS ver. 18. Results : 1. The Friedman test showed that there is no statistically significant difference between the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ryodoraku scores measured by the same examiner. It indicates that the Ryodoraku acupuncture device provides the repeatability. 2. Spearman correlation test confirmed the results obtained by the Fiedman test by showing that there exists a strong positive correlation between the three Ryodoraku scores measured by the same examiner. 3. A very high ICC among the three examiner assured that the Ryodoraku acupuncture device achieves the reproducibility. Conclusions : The Ryodoraku acupuncture device achieves the repeatability and reproducibility. However, we still recommend that a doctor trained to a certain level use the Device to carry out the diagnosis. Also, to improve the device in terms of Reproducibility even more, it should be considered to provide a manual for the exact usage.
