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Some interesting abstracts presented at the University of Salford's, Biomechanics of the Lower Limb in Health and Disease Conference:

Among others there was:
Hans Savelberg - "Muscle Weakness and Joint Moment Distribution in Diabetic Polyneuropathy" - showed that muscle weakness occured in leg muscles in those with and without diabetic polyeuropathy, BUT, the effects of the weakness on joint moments was only found in those with neuropathy (nice little finding )

Zoltan Pataky - "Increased plantar pressure as an early sign of peripheral neuropathy in type 2 diabetic patients - found that peak pressure increases and prolonged duation of contact occured before the clinical onset of neuropathy.

Guldemond - "Clinical Proficiency of Dutch Podiatrists, Pedorthists and Orthotists Regarding Plantar Pressure Reduction" - 3 patients got orthoses from 10 podiatrists, 10 pedorthists and 11 orthotists. There were differences between and within groups in identification of high pressure areas (compared to computerised plantar pressure mesurement) and there were differences between and within professions in the ability of the foot orthoses used to reduce plantar presure - however, their statistical analysis is meaingless as only 3 patients were used.

Activity monitoring is the hot topic in diabetes foot biomechanics at the moment - several papers were presented on that, with one concluding that "Our preliminary results suggest that the recognition of a risky activity patten with regard to foot ulceration might be possible..." (Koller et al)