Execution:
- Bring your patient’s head into extension and lateral bending and assess if symptoms occur distal to the elbow
- If your patient does not report any symptoms, you can make the test more provocative by adding axial compression
Positive Outcome: Patient experiences familiar shooting pain and/or paresthesia in the arm distal to the elbow in case of cervical radicular syndrome.
Study |
Reliability | Sn | Sp | LR+ |
LR- |
Wainner et al. (2003): lateral flexion+compr. |
Inter-rater к= 0.60 | 50 | 83 | 3.5 | 0.58 |
Shah et al. (2004): lateral flexion+compr. | NA | 92 | 95 | 18.4 |
0.08 |
Hanney et al. (2014 | Inter-rater к= 0.35 | NA | NA | NA |
NA |
Shabat et al. (2012) | NA | 95 | 94 | 15.8 |
0.05 |
Comment: Anekstein et al. (2012) have described that the test is best done in extension, lateral flexion towards the affected side and possible overpressure if not provocative already. |