Heel pressure ulcers are important clinical, humanitarian and economic problems arising in part from localized blood flow deficits during loading and inadequate flow recovery. Because there are few data available with regard to the intrinsic physiological responses of heel skin to pressure-induced ischaemia, the present study was undertaken to characterize the main features of the post-loading ...

A simple and rapid automatic method for detection of gait events at the foot could speed up and possibly increase the repeatability of gait analysis and evaluations of treatments for pathological gaits. The aim of this study was to compare and validate a kinematic-based algorithm used in the detection of four gait events, heel contact, heel rise, toe contact and toe off. Force platform data is ...

A common source of error when detecting heel-strike moments utilizing split force-plate treadmills is unwillingly stepping on contra-lateral force-plate. In this study, we quantified this error when heel-strike was detected based on such erroneous data and compared three methods to investigate how well the heel-strikes and stride-intervals were detected with erroneous data. Eleven subjects walk...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism of foot strike pattern (FSP) adaptations to a minimalist shoe among the different heel height in running. We found that the strike index (SI) and foot strike angle (FSA) were systematically affected by changes in heel height. We also observed a linear correlation between FSA and SI. However, no changes in initial foot angle (IFA) were f...

BACKGROUND Excessive shoe heel abrasion is of concern to patients and shoe manufacturers, but little scientific information is available about this feature and its possible causes. The purpose of this study was to relate this phenomenon with biomechanical factors that could predispose to shoe heel abrasion. METHODS Ninety-seven recruits (median age 25) were enrolled in this study. Shoe abrasi...

Results The study group comprised 317 FMF patients (170 females, 147 males) with a mean age of 12.2 ± 5.7 years. The frequency of musculoskeletal complaints were as follows; arthritis 18%, arthralgia 43%, leg pain 43%, heel pain 36%, myalgia 8%, protracted arthritis 2%, protracted febrile myalgia 2%. Leg pain and heel pain were more frequently detected in patients with homozygous M694V (p<0.05)...

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Whereas the effect of heel configuration on the tension of the suspensory apparatus is well documented in the literature, there are few reports of joint contact force components in the equine distal forelimb. OBJECTIVES To improve understanding of the effect of heel configuration on equine digit joint loading, a sensitivity analysis was performed to compare the ef...

This study investigated the feasibility of gait recognition using points on the body in threedimensional (3D) space based on comparisons of four different feature vectors. To obtain the point trajectories on the body in 3D, gait motion data were captured from 10 participants using a 3D motion capture system, and four shoes with different heel heights were used to study the effects of heel heigh...

Methods To measure the muscle activations of the C6, T7 and L5 paraspinal muscles and lumbar multifidus during standing, EMG (Keypoint, Medrtonic, USA) was used. After breathing was calmed down, muscle activation during standing on the ground with bare foot was measured. Subsequently, muscle activation during standing wearing shoes with 8cm Wedge heel, Setback heel and French heel were measured...

Mechanical heel pain is one of the most frequent conditions presented to foot and ankle specialists. Plantar heel pain is responsible for the majority of mechanical heel pain cases. Plantar heel pain is defined as insertional heel pain of the plantar fascia with or without a heel spur (Fig. 1). The most common cause cited for plantar heel pain is biomechanical abnormalities that lead to patholo...