ISB, Brussels, 2011; 1162
The Muscle Activity In The Lower Limb During Single Legged Hop In Children With Juvienile Idiophathic Arthritis
Year: 2011
Dwyer KD; Kennedy MJ; Lamontagne M; Roth J
School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, Canada,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ottawa, Canada,
Pediatric Rheumatology, Children"s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Canada
Abstract
The one-legged hop was used to assess the muscle function of children diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Vertical hopping relies heavily on the triceps surae musculature, and the calcaneal tendon making it ideal for investigating the properties of these tissues under dynamic conditions. The purpose of this study was to assess whether the children"s arthritis status had an effect on muscle function. Two groups of patients were collected; six patients had unilateral JIA, and eight had bilateral JIA. All participants were in remission from JIA in this study. Muscle function was assessed using the patients averaged integrated EMG over the hopping trials. For unilateral patients, the ratio of their iEMG for their Affected: Unaffected sides were calculated, and Affected:Affected ratio"s were calculated for bilateral patients. In terms of iEMG, neither the bilateral group nor the unilateral group significantly favoured any particular side over the other. None of the results were statistically significant when using t-tests to compare the ratios to the known mean of 1. Further research needs to be done to determine if arthritis has adverse muscle effects in JIA patients. If so, therapy solutions that help strengthen muscles to return to normal function may be a viable solution.GID: 2753; Last update: 05.10.2011
