Effects of disuse from lower limb immobilization on proprioception
Smith, Claire
Citations
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two-weeks of left leg immobilization on proprioception using tendon taps (TT) and a reactive leg drop (RLD) test in young healthy adults. Twenty-seven subjects (26.1 ± 4.8 yrs) volunteered to participate in either a disuse or control group. Disuse subjects were required to not use their left leg for two consecutive weeks while wearing a knee brace set to 100 of flexion and were to use crutches. The control group did not change their living habits within the two-week period. Both groups were tested pre- and post- two weeks. During testing an electronic goniometer was attached to the participants leg at a 90° and 180° angle for tendon tap (TT) and the reactive leg drop (RLD) test, respectively. During both tests, participants performed the Jendrassik maneuver; hands clasped while pulling in opposite directions, eyes closed with the head back. During the TT, the patellar tendon was struck with a weighted hammer to induce a knee jerk reflex. During the RLD, an investigator supported the weight of the participants leg while it was fully relaxed, at random intervals the leg was dropped, the participant was instructed to kick their leg back to the previous position as quickly as possible when they felt their leg begin to fall. Reflex magnitude (°) was recorded during TT and drop angle (°) was recorded during RLD tests. Due to the difficulty of this study, a total of 18 subjects finished the protocol (disuse n=7, control n=11). A 3-way mixed factorial ANOVA was used to investigate the reflex magnitude of TT and the drop angle of the RLD in Time x Limb x Group. There was a significant interaction of Time and significant correlation between Limb x Group from RLD and a significant correlation between Time x Group from TT. Those in the disuse group had a significantly lower TT change than the controls, but they had a significantly greater RLD change than the controls. With modifications to these measures, these tests will be an effective way to measure proprioception in future research.