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Coordination Variability During Walking and Running in Individuals With and Without Patellofemoral Pain Part 2: Proximal Segments Coordination Variability

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A Correction to this article was published on 03 March 2021

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Abstract

Purpose

There is a scarcity of studies evaluating the variability of couplings between proximal segments (trunk, pelvis, and thigh) in individuals with patellofemoral pain (PFP) while emerging evidence has suggested that aberrant motions of trunk and pelvis can have a contributory role in the etiology of PFP. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the trunk, pelvis, and thigh intersegmental coordination variability in PFP compared with healthy individuals.

Methods

Thirty-four participants (17 with PFP and 17 healthy controls) walked (at preferred speed) and ran (at preferred and fixed speed) on a treadmill each trial for 30 seconds. Three-dimensional kinematics were recorded using a motion capture system. Continuous Relative Phase was used to calculate the coordination variability of couplings between trunk, pelvis, and thigh.

Results

The PFP group was significantly less variable at trunk-thigh and pelvis-thigh in frontal plane during stance at preferred speed running and trunk-pelvis in sagittal plane during swing irrespective of trial. The variability differences of the following couplings among study groups tended to be significant with the PFP group showing lesser values: trunk-thigh and pelvis-thigh in frontal plane during stance at fixed speed running, trunk-pelvis in frontal plane during swing at preferred speed running and trunk-thigh in sagittal plane during swing.

Conclusion

Lower variability in coordination of trunk, pelvis, and thigh in individuals with PFP indicates the system’s reduced ability to transit between movement patterns and to respond to different perturbations which could result in the progression of the patellofemoral joint injury.

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Acknowledgements

The current article was extracted from the Ph.D. thesis written by Farzaneh Haghighat. We thank the scientific and financial support from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, the Deputy for Research Affairs, and the School of Rehabilitation Sciences.

Funding

This work was financially supported by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (Grant Number: 97–01-04–17431).

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Correspondence to Alireza Motealleh.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Ethical approval was granted by the local Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (IR.SUMS.REHAB.REC.1397.006).

Additional information

The original Online version of this article was revised “In the original publication, there were errors in some sentences, Figure legends, and Tables that are corrected”.

In the original publication, there were errors in some sentences, Figure legends, and Tables that are corrected.

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Haghighat, F., Rezaie, M., Ebrahimi, S. et al. Coordination Variability During Walking and Running in Individuals With and Without Patellofemoral Pain Part 2: Proximal Segments Coordination Variability. J. Med. Biol. Eng. 41, 305–313 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-021-00598-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-021-00598-z

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