The effect of a 4-week comprehensive rehabilitation program on postural control and lower extremity function in individuals with chronic ankle instability.

Study Design: Prospective, randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To examine the effects of a 4-week rehabilitation program for chronic ankle instability (CAI) on postural control and lower extremity function.

Background: CAI is associated with residual symptoms, performance deficits, and reinjury.

Time-to-boundary measures of postural control during single leg quiet standing.

A novel approach to quantifying postural stability in single leg stance is assessment of time-to-boundary (TTB) of center of pressure (COP) excursions. TTB measures estimate the time required for the COP to reach the boundary of the base of support if it were to continue on its instantaneous trajectory and velocity, thus quantifying the spatiotemporal characteristics of postural control. Our purposes were to examine: (a) the intrasession reliability of TTB and traditional COP-based measures of postural control, and (b) the correlations between these measures.

Simplifying the star excursion balance test: analyses of subjects with and without chronic ankle instability.

Study Design: Case control study.

Objectives: The objectives of this study are: (1) to perform factor analyses on data from the 8 components of the star excursion balance test (SEBT) in subjects with and without chronic ankle instability (CAI) in an effort to reduce the number of components of the SEBT, (2) to assess the relationships between performance of the different reach directions using correlation analyses, and (3) to determine which components of the SEBT are most affected by CAI.

Background: The SEBT is a series of 8 lower-extremity-reaching tasks purported to be useful in identifying lower extremity functional deficits.

Neuromuscular performance and knee laxity do not change across the menstrual cycle in female athletes.

Female athletes incur anterior cruciate ligament ruptures at a rate at least twice that of male athletes. Hypothesized factors for the increased injury risk in females include biomechanical, neuromuscular, and hormonal differences between genders. A wealth of literature exists examining these potential predispositions individually, but the interactions between these factors have not been examined extensively.

Deficits in time-to-boundary measures of postural control with chronic ankle instability.

Our purpose was to examine postural control in single leg stance in subjects with and without unilateral chronic ankle instability (CAI) using traditional center of pressure (COP)-based and time-to-boundary (TTB) measures. Fifteen physically active females with self-reported unilateral chronic ankle instability (CAI) and nine healthy female controls performed three 10-s trials of eyes open single limb quiet standing on a force plate on both their legs. The traditional measures were mean COP velocity, standard deviation of COP, range of COP, and percent of available range utilized.