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Muscle architecture and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius medialis and Achilles tendon in children who idiopathically toe‐walk

Children who idiopathically toe‐walk (ITW) habitually operate at greater plantarflexion angles and thus, at shorter muscle‐tendon unit (MTU) lengths than typically developing (TD) children. Therefore, it is often assumed that habitual use of the gastrocnemius muscle in this way will cause remodellin...

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Autores principales: Harkness‐Armstrong, Carla, Maganaris, Constantinos, Walton, Roger, Wright, David M., Bass, Alfie, Baltzopoulos, Vasilios, O’Brien, Thomas D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450476/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34109625
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joa.13464
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author Harkness‐Armstrong, Carla
Maganaris, Constantinos
Walton, Roger
Wright, David M.
Bass, Alfie
Baltzopoulos, Vasilios
O’Brien, Thomas D.
author_facet Harkness‐Armstrong, Carla
Maganaris, Constantinos
Walton, Roger
Wright, David M.
Bass, Alfie
Baltzopoulos, Vasilios
O’Brien, Thomas D.
author_sort Harkness‐Armstrong, Carla
collection PubMed
description Children who idiopathically toe‐walk (ITW) habitually operate at greater plantarflexion angles and thus, at shorter muscle‐tendon unit (MTU) lengths than typically developing (TD) children. Therefore, it is often assumed that habitual use of the gastrocnemius muscle in this way will cause remodelling of the muscle‐tendon architecture compared to TD children. However, the gastrocnemius muscle architecture of children who ITW has never been measured. It is essential that we gain a better understanding of these muscle‐tendon properties, to ensure that appropriate clinical interventions can be provided for these children. Five children who ITW (age 8 ± 2 years) and 14 TD children (age 10 ± 2 years) participated in this study. Ultrasound was combined with isokinetic dynamometry and surface electromyography, to measure muscle architecture at common positions and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius muscle and tendon across full range of motion. Regardless of which common condition groups were compared under, both the absolute and normalised to MTU muscle belly and fascicle lengths were always longer, and the Achilles tendon length was always shorter in children who ITW than TD children (p < 0.05; large effect sizes). The passive lengthening properties of the muscle and tendon were not different between groups (p > 0.05); however, passive joint stiffness was greater in children who ITW at maximum dorsiflexion (p = 0.001) and at a joint moment common to all participants (p = 0.029). Consequently, the findings of this pilot study indicate a remodelling of the relative MTU that does not support the concept that children who ITW commonly experience muscle shortening. Therefore, greater consideration of the muscle and tendon properties are required when prescribing clinical interventions that aim to lengthen the MTU, and treatments may be better targeted at the Achilles tendon in children who ITW.
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spelling pubmed-84504762021-09-27 Muscle architecture and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius medialis and Achilles tendon in children who idiopathically toe‐walk Harkness‐Armstrong, Carla Maganaris, Constantinos Walton, Roger Wright, David M. Bass, Alfie Baltzopoulos, Vasilios O’Brien, Thomas D. J Anat Original Papers Children who idiopathically toe‐walk (ITW) habitually operate at greater plantarflexion angles and thus, at shorter muscle‐tendon unit (MTU) lengths than typically developing (TD) children. Therefore, it is often assumed that habitual use of the gastrocnemius muscle in this way will cause remodelling of the muscle‐tendon architecture compared to TD children. However, the gastrocnemius muscle architecture of children who ITW has never been measured. It is essential that we gain a better understanding of these muscle‐tendon properties, to ensure that appropriate clinical interventions can be provided for these children. Five children who ITW (age 8 ± 2 years) and 14 TD children (age 10 ± 2 years) participated in this study. Ultrasound was combined with isokinetic dynamometry and surface electromyography, to measure muscle architecture at common positions and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius muscle and tendon across full range of motion. Regardless of which common condition groups were compared under, both the absolute and normalised to MTU muscle belly and fascicle lengths were always longer, and the Achilles tendon length was always shorter in children who ITW than TD children (p < 0.05; large effect sizes). The passive lengthening properties of the muscle and tendon were not different between groups (p > 0.05); however, passive joint stiffness was greater in children who ITW at maximum dorsiflexion (p = 0.001) and at a joint moment common to all participants (p = 0.029). Consequently, the findings of this pilot study indicate a remodelling of the relative MTU that does not support the concept that children who ITW commonly experience muscle shortening. Therefore, greater consideration of the muscle and tendon properties are required when prescribing clinical interventions that aim to lengthen the MTU, and treatments may be better targeted at the Achilles tendon in children who ITW. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-06-09 2021-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8450476/ /pubmed/34109625 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joa.13464 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Anatomy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Anatomical Society. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Papers
Harkness‐Armstrong, Carla
Maganaris, Constantinos
Walton, Roger
Wright, David M.
Bass, Alfie
Baltzopoulos, Vasilios
O’Brien, Thomas D.
Muscle architecture and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius medialis and Achilles tendon in children who idiopathically toe‐walk
title Muscle architecture and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius medialis and Achilles tendon in children who idiopathically toe‐walk
title_full Muscle architecture and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius medialis and Achilles tendon in children who idiopathically toe‐walk
title_fullStr Muscle architecture and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius medialis and Achilles tendon in children who idiopathically toe‐walk
title_full_unstemmed Muscle architecture and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius medialis and Achilles tendon in children who idiopathically toe‐walk
title_short Muscle architecture and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius medialis and Achilles tendon in children who idiopathically toe‐walk
title_sort muscle architecture and passive lengthening properties of the gastrocnemius medialis and achilles tendon in children who idiopathically toe‐walk
topic Original Papers
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450476/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34109625
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joa.13464
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