Can Achilles tendon moment arm be predicted from anthropometric measures in pre-pubescent children?

Document Type

Journal Article

Faculty

Faculty of Computing, Health and Science

School

School of Exercise and Health Sciences / Centre for Exercise and Sports Science Research

RAS ID

12326

Comments

Waugh, C., Blazevich, A. J., Fath, F., & Korff, T. (2011). Can Achilles tendon moment arm be predicted from anthropometric measures in pre-pubescent children?. Journal of Biomechanics, 44(10), 1839-1844. Available here

Abstract

Muscle–tendonmomentarmmagnitudesareessentialvariablesforaccuratelycalculatingmuscle forcesfromjointmoments.Theirmeasurementrequiresspecialistknowledgeandexpensiveresources. Researchhasshownthatthepatellartendonmomentarmlengthisrelatedtoleganthropometryin children.Here,weaskedwhethertheAchillestendonmomentarm(MAAT) canbeaccuratelypredicted in pre-pubescentchildrenfromsurfaceanthropometry.Age,standingheight,mass,footlength,inter- malleolaranklewidth,antero-posteriorankledepth,tibiallength,lowerlegcircumference,and distancesfromthecalcaneustothedistalheadofthe1stmetatarsalandmedialmalleoluswere determinedin49pre-pubescentchildren.MAAT wascalculatedatthreedifferentanklepositions (neutral,101 plantarflexion,and101 dorsiflexion)bydifferentiatingtendonexcursion,measuredvia ultrasonography,withrespecttoankleanglechangeusingsevendifferentdifferentiationtechniques. BackwardsstepwiseregressionanalyseswereperformedtoidentifypredictorsofMAAT. When all variableswereincluded,theregressionanalysisaccountedforamaximumof49%ofMAAT variance at the neutralankleanglewhenathird-orderpolynomialwasusedtodifferentiatetendonexcursionwith respecttoankleangle.Forthiscondition,footlengthandthedistancebetweencalcaneusand1st metatarsalweretheonlysignificantpredictors,accountingfor47%ofthevariance(po0.05). The absoluteerrorassociatedwiththisregressionmodelwas3.874.4 mm,whichwouldresultin significanterror(mean¼14.5%)whenestimatingmuscleforcesfromjointmoments.Weconclude that MAAT cannotbeaccuratelypredictedfromanthropometricmeasuresinchildren.

DOI

10.1016/j.jbiomech.2011.03.023

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1016/j.jbiomech.2011.03.023