Influence of anticipation on movement patterns in subjects with ACL deficiency classified as noncopers.

Study Design: Two-factor, mixed experimental design.

Objectives: To compare movement patterns of subjects who are anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficient and classified as noncopers to controls during early stance of anticipated and unanticipated straight and cutting tasks.

Background: Altered neuromuscular control of subjects that are ACL deficient and noncoper theoretically influences movement patterns during unanticipated tasks.

Analysis of EMG patterns of control subjects and subjects with ACL deficiency during an unanticipated walking cut task.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the muscle activation patterns of the vastus lateralis (VL), medial hamstrings (MH) and lateral hamstrings (LH) associated with subjects that were anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficient and controls.

Methods: A total of 54 subjects participated in this study including 25 ACL deficient subjects subdivided into copers (n=9) and non-copers (n=16) using clinical criteria. Muscle activation patterns were recorded at 1000 Hz during an unanticipated side step cut task.

Sensitivities of medial meniscal motion and deformation to material properties of articular cartilage, meniscus and meniscal attachments using design of experiments methods.

This study investigated the role of the material properties assumed for articular cartilage, meniscus and meniscal attachments on the fit of a finite element model (FEM) to experimental data for meniscal motion and deformation due to an anterior tibial loading of 45 N in the anterior cruciate ligament-deficient knee. Taguchi style L18 orthogonal arrays were used to identify the most significant factors for further examination. A central composite design was then employed to develop a mathematical model for predicting the fit of the FEM to the experimental data as a function of the material properties and to identify the material property selections that optimize the fit.