Article

The toe flexor muscles maintain body balance during standing and provide push-off
force during walking, running, and jumping. Additionally, they are important
contributing structures to maintain normal foot function. Thus, weakness of these
muscles may cause poor balance, inefficient locomotion and foot deformities.
The quantification of metatarsophalangeal joint (MPJ) stiffness is valuable as it is
considered as a confounding factor in toe flexor muscles function. MPJ and ankle
joint stiffness measurement is still largely depended on manual skills as current
devices do not have good control on alignment, angular joint speed and
displacement during measurement. Therefore, this study introduces an innovative
dynamometer and protocol procedures for MPJ and ankle Joint torque measurement
with precise and reliable foot alignment, angular joint speed and displacement
control. Within-day and between-day test-retest experiments on MPJ and ankle
joint torque measurement were conducted on ten and nine healthy male subjects
respectively. The mean peak torques of MPJ and ankle joint of between-day and
within-day measurement were 1.50+/-0.38Nm/deg and 1.19+/-0.34Nm/deg. The
corresponding torques of the ankle joint were 8.24+/-2.20Nm/deg and
7.90+/-3.18Nm/deg respectively. Intraclass-correlation coefficients (ICC) of
averaged peak torque of both joints of between-day and within-day test-retest
experiments were ranging from 0.91 to 0.96, indicating the innovative device is
systematic and reliable for the measurements and can be used for multiple
scientific and clinical purposes.
CI - Copyright (c) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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