Perspectives for clinical measures of dynamic foot function-reference data and methodological considerations

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Sports Medicine
• Orthopedics

Background:

• Static foot posture assessments yield inconsistent results for predicting dynamic function.
• Dynamic foot measures are suggested to be more effective for predicting overuse injuries.
• Reliability and relationship between static and dynamic foot measures require further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the intra-rater reliability of dynamic measures for longitudinal arch angle (LAA) and navicular height (NH).
• To assess the correlation between static and dynamic measures of LAA and NH.
• To evaluate the impact of marker placement uncertainty and skin movement on these measures.

Main Methods:

• Intra-rater reliability testing of LAA and NH on 17 control subjects.
• Dynamic LAA and NH measurement during treadmill walking in 79 subjects over 20 steps.
• Analysis using a geometric error model to simulate measurement uncertainties.

Main Results:

• All dynamic measures demonstrated high reliability, with minimum navicular height (MinNH) and dynamic range of navicular height (DeltaNH) showing the highest.
• Marker placement uncertainty and skin movement had minimal impact on NH measures.
• An alignment device improved the reliability of NH measures.

Conclusions:

• Dynamic measures, specifically DeltaNH and MinNH, are recommended for functional foot characterization in the sagittal plane.
• These dynamic measures show potential for predicting overuse injuries and are feasible for clinical use.
• Further large-scale clinical studies are needed to validate these findings.