Varus thrust visualized during gait was associated with inverted foot in patients with knee osteoarthritis: An exploratory study

Pedobarographic evaluations in physical medicine and rehabilitation practice

The feet are complex structures that transmit loads transferred by other parts of the body to the ground and are involved in many static and dynamic activities, such as standing and walking. The contact area and pressure changes between the feet and the ground surface can be measured using pedobarographic devices. With pedobarographic examinations, it is possible to obtain a wide range of information needed to support clinical evaluation and diagnostic tests in physical medicine and rehabilitation practice. Foot structure and function, postural stability, lower extremity biomechanics, and gait analysis are among the areas that can be further investigated using pedobarography.

Association between foot posture and tibiofemoral contact forces during barefoot walking in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Background

Accumulating evidence indicates that abnormal foot posture are risk factors for knee osteoarthritis (OA). However, the relationship between foot posture and tibiofemoral contact force (CF) during habitual weight-bearing activities remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the association between tibiofemoral CF and foot posture while walking.

Methods

In total, 18 patients with knee OA and 18 healthy individuals participated in this cross-sectional study. Foot parameters were evaluated by Foot Posture Index (FPI), Staheli Arch Index (SAI), hallux valgus angle, calcaneus inverted angle relative to the floor as a static rearfoot posture, navicular height, and toe grip strength. In addition, all participants underwent kinetic and kinematic measurements during a self-selected speed gait. The measurement device used was the three-dimensional motion analysis system with a sampling rate of 120 Hz. The musculoskeletal model, which has 92 Hill-type muscle–tendon units with 23 degrees of freedom, was used to calculate tibiofemoral CF. Partial correlations was used to investigate the association between foot parameters and total, medial, and lateral tibiofemoral CF of the first and second peaks while controlling for gait speed.

Results

A significant negative correlation was observed between Walking SAI and first peak medial tibiofemoral CF in control participants (r = -0.505, p = 0.039). SAI was also significantly positively correlated with first peak medial tibiofemoral CF in patients with knee OA (r = 0.482, p = 0.042).

Conclusions

Our findings revealed a correlation between the medial first peak tibiofemoral CF and the SAI. This study indicates that people with knee OA and flatfoot have excessive first medial tibiofemoral CF during walking.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12891-022-05624-y.