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Hello there,

I'm a 3rd year osteopathy student about to start my final year research project.
I was hoping to investigate whether there is any correlation between angle of pronation and occurence of knee injuries/pain in a random subject group.
The problem is, I don't have any access to x-ray equipment or anything particularly advanced (technology being a bit of a dirty word still for a lot of Osteos unfortunately!) for the measuring of pronation.

I have had a bit of a look online and seen various tests involving measuring talus height off the ground or drawing lines on the calcaneum and tibia and seeing how they relate, but all seem a bit vague. I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions of accurate testing/measuring I would be able to perform myself with limited resources? You seemed the people to ask!

I'm not looking to change the world or anything with my research but it would be nice to do something vaguely useful and therefore want data that's as accurate as possible.

I hope you don't mind my joining your forum and that this topic is posted in roughly the right place? All thoughts and ideas gratefully received.

Many thanks, Tom

 

Hi Tom,

Might be worth giving this a read:
http://www.podiatry-arena.com/podiatry-forum/showthread.php?t=2334&highlight=pronation

If you are after a good cheap tool to employ within a study in order to 'classify' foot types you may want to read up about the 'foot posture index', or 'navicular drift/drop' - http://www.podiatry-arena.com/podiatry-forum/showthread.php?t=3167

Ian

 

Hi Tom,

Several years back, at the California College of Podiatric Medicine the biomechanics department did a little internal study on repeatability of heel bisection. There was a 5 degree range amongsth the "experts" of where the heel bisection was on sevaral people. We didn't do variation of a single testor over time, but I would bet that would have some significant variation as well. So, whether you are looking at heel to leg or heel to ground there is still some significant inaccuracy.

You should look at the other threads on this site that have looked at pronation or foot posture index in relation to various symptms.

Cheers,

Eric

 

Why? Its been done to death. 1 cross-sectional study has shown a relationship; 2 cross-sectional studies have shown no relationship; all 7 prospective studies have shown NO relationship.

 

Thanks loads for all your replies, the foot posture index could be ideal if I decide to go ahead with it so very grateful for that Ian.
I wasn't aware of the other studies but that's actually quite useful as we are supposed to compare our findings to previous research.

Regards, Tom

 

See these threads

 

You can also look up the recent work being done by Roy Lidtke's team. Keep in mind that his pronation studies are separate from his knee OA studies, but both reveal some reasonable conclusions.