Speed’s Test

Authors

Affiliations

Nate Yomogida, B.S., SPT

Doctor of Physical Therapy

B.S. in Kinesiology

Chloë Kerstein, B.S., SPT

Doctor of Physical Therapy

B.A. in Neuroscience

Technique

“Speed Test. The patient’s arm is positioned in shoulder flexion, full ER, full elbow extension, and full forearm supination (Fig. 16-74). Manual resistance is applied by the clinician. The test is positive if localized pain at the bicipital groove is reproduced. Wilk et al.4 have introduced a dynamic version of the Speed’s test. During this maneuver, the examiner provides resistance against both shoulder elevation and elbow flexion simultaneously as the patient elevates the arm overhead.”¹

Interpretation

“A positive Speed test suggests a bicipital tendinopathy when resisted forward flexion of the shoulder causes bicipital groove pain or deep pain within the shoulder. Kibler and colleagues131 showed the Speed test to have a sensitivity of 54% and specificity of 81% for biceps pathology. The Speed test is also used to detect a superior labral tear (Table 16-28) (see “Yergason’s Test”).”¹

Psychometrics

For bicep tear^{gillPhysicalExaminationPartial2007?}

• a sensitivity of 50%, a specificity of 67%, an accuracy of 66%, and a likelihood ratio of 1.51
• “None of the other tests had a sensitivity of more than 68% for partial biceps tears.”^{gillPhysicalExaminationPartial2007?}

References

1.

Dutton M. Dutton’s Orthopaedic Examination, Evaluation, and Intervention. 5th ed. McGraw Hill Education; 2020.