The stiffness of fracture fixation devices together with musculoskeletal loading defines the mechanical environment within a long bone fracture, and can be quantified by the interfragmentary movement. In vivo results suggested that this can have acceleratory or inhibitory influences, depending on direction and magnitude of motion, indicating that some complications in fracture treatment could b...

Understanding leg and joint stiffness adjustment during maximum hopping may provide important information for developing more effective training methods. It has been reported that ankle stiffness has major influence on stable spring-mass dynamics during submaximal hopping, and that knee stiffness is a major determinant for hopping performance during maximal hopping task. Furthermore, there are ...

In the assessment of fracture healing by monitoring stiffness with vibrational analysis or instrumented external fixators, it has been assumed that there is a workable correlation between stiffness and strength. We used four-point bending tests to study time-related changes in stiffness and strength in healing tibial fractures in sheep. We aimed to test the validity of the measurement of stiffn...

Acampa et al. investigated arterial stiffness in patients with deep intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in comparison with that in patients with lobar ICH. The arterial stiffness index was significantly higher in the patients with deep ICH than in the patients with lobar ICH. This is a well-written study. However, we want to mention the associated drugs used by patients that can affect arterial stif...

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BACKGROUND Recent qualitative research has shown that stiffness is an important symptom for patients to identify remission. However, it is unclear how to measure stiffness in low disease activity. This systematic review aims to summarise the existing literature on validity of patient reported outcomes to measure stiffness in RA low disease activity states, to aid the choice for a measurement in...

BACKGROUND The muscle force-stiffness relationship has often been modeled as linear, while in situ muscle research has clearly demonstrated non-linearity. Estimation of rotational joint stability relies on both a muscle's instantaneous pre-perturbation force and stiffness. Under conditions of static equilibrium, a muscle's stiffness will function in a stabilizing manner, while its force can fun...

In recent decades, the pervasiveness of increased arterial stiffness in patients with cardiovascular disease has become increasingly apparent. Though, this phenomenon has been well documented in humans and animal models of disease for well over a century, there has been surprisingly limited development in a deeper mechanistic understanding of arterial stiffness. Much of the historical literatur...

The influence of temperature on contractile performance, total myocardial stiffness, and the elastic and viscous components of stiffness was studied in intact hearts (dog) and isolated cardiac muscle (cat). In 12 dogs on whole-heart bypass, stiffness (AP/AV) was determined by inducing sinusoidal 0.5-ml volume changes in paced, isovolumically contracting left ventricles and measuring the resulta...

Hydrogels are widely used as in vitro culture models to mimic 3D cellular microenvironments. The stiffness of the extracellular matrix is known to influence cell phenotype, inspiring work toward unraveling the role of stiffness on cell behavior using hydrogels. However, in many biological processes such as embryonic development, wound healing, and tumorigenesis, the microenvironment is highly d...