Introduction: Genu valgus is a condition characterised by a lateral shift of the knee's mechanical axis. The deformity can be characterised using clinical examinations and long hip-knee-ankle (HKA) angles, but it is unclear how these investigations correlate with each other. Our aim was to examine the correlation between clinical and radiographic measurements of the lower extremities in children.
Methods: A total of 49 children between 5.9 and 16.7 years of age who had been referred with genu valgum deformity were included. They all had their intermalleolar (IM) distance measured and a standardised anterior-posterior radiograph of the lower extremities taken. IM distance was adjusted for the mean tibial and femoral length to adjust for differences in leg length. We calculated the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient to study the reliability between radiographs and clinical examinations.
Results: We found no correlation between clinical IM distance and the HKA angles. Spearman's rho for comparison between adjusted clinical IM distance measurements and HKA angles on radiographs was found to be 0.36.
Conclusions: We found a poor correlation between clinical examinations and HKA angles as data were corrected for leg length. More studies are needed to provide clear recommendations for following children with malalignment.
Funding: none.
Trial registration: The study was registered with the Danish Data Protection Agency.
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