Active Compression Test of O‘Brien

Execution:

1. Patient is standing
2. The patient’s shoulder is brought into 90° of flexion, 10° of horizontal adduction and maximal internal rotation
3. The patient resists downward pressure from the examiner
4. The same procedure is repeated with the shoulder in 90° of flexion, 10° of horizontal adduction and maximal external rotation

 

Positive Outcome: The pain provoked in the first testing position is reduced in the second testing position

Study	Reliability	Sn	Sp	LR+	LR-
Hegedus et al. (2012)	NA	67	37	1.06	0.89
Cadogan et al. (2011)	Inter-rater ĸ=0.38	NA	NA	NA	NA
Gismervik et al. (2017)	NA	66	36	1.03	0.94
Ebinger et al. (2008)	NA	94	28	1.31	0.21
Davis et al. (2018)	NA	71.5	51.9	1.48	0.55
Cook et al. (2012)	NA	85	10	0.94	1.5
Somerville et al. (2017)	NA	33.3	61.3	0.86	1.09
The Active Compression Test of O’Brien is also used as a test for the AC joint (see in a later section of this book)