The Clinical Relevance of Force Platform Measures in Multiple Sclerosis: A Review

Table 2

Summary of pros and cons of force platform measures and clinical scales.

	Force platform measures	Clinical scales
Equipment
Expensive	Y	N
Cumbersome	Y	N
Training of staff required	Y	Y/N^a
Data collection
Easy and fast to administer	Y/N^b	Y/N^b
Affected by emotional status or external factors	Y	Y
Invasive for patients	N	Y/N^c
Statistical consideration
Linear values	Y	N
Objective measurements	Y	N
Ceiling effect	N	Y
Reliability	Y	Y
Clinical utility
Detection of subclinical impairment	Y	N
Identification of underlying causes of imbalance	Y/N^d	Y/N^d
Prediction of falls	Y	Y
Ability in detecting improvements	Y	Y

^aSelf-administered questionnaire did not require any specific training; ^bBESTest and dynamic posturography may be time consuming; ^cdynamic posturography may be poor tolerated; ^dBESTest and dynamic posturography can identify the system that mainly affect balance.