Men's shoes and knee joint torques relevant to the development and progression of knee osteoarthritis.

Objective: To determine if men's dress shoes and sneakers increase knee joint torques and play the same role in the development and/or progression of knee osteoarthritis (OA) as women's high-heeled dress shoes.

Methods: Three-dimensional data regarding lower extremity torques and motion were collected during walking in 22 healthy men while (1) wearing dress shoes, (2) wearing sneakers, and (3) barefoot. Data were plotted and qualitatively compared; major peak values were statistically compared between conditions.

Women's shoes and knee osteoarthritis.

We assessed whether wearing wide-heeled shoes has a similar effect on knee torque to narrow-heeled shoes by measuring the joint torques of 20 healthy women during walking. Wearing wide-heeled shoes had a 30% greater effect on peak external knee flexor torque than walking barefoot. Walking with wide-heeled and narrow-heeled shoes increased peak knee varus torque by 26% and 22%, respectively.

Spastic paretic stiff-legged gait: joint kinetics.

Objective: The authors previously suggested that spastic paretic stiff-legged gait, defined as reduced knee flexion in swing associated with upper-motor neuron injury, can be attributed to multiple impairments besides spastic quadriceps activity. This study hypothesizes that subjects with spastic paretic stiff-legged gait have altered kinetics not only about the knee but also about the hip and ankle.

Design: Joint kinetic data of 20 subjects with spastic paretic stiff-legged gait caused by stroke were compared with data obtained from 20 able-bodied subjects.

Locomotion and head scanning initiated by hypothalamic stimulation are inversely related.

Stimulation in the hypothalamus elicits locomotor stepping. Before stepping is initiated, head scanning movements occur. We determined the relationships between the latency of locomotor initiation and the number, extent and direction of the head scanning movements.