Foot Intrinsic

BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia is characterized by chronic pain, fatigue, and other somatic symptoms. We have recently revealed that proprioceptor hyperactivation induces chronic pain in a rat model of myalgic encephalomyelitis. The present study explores whether similar proprioceptor-induced pain is elicited in a mouse model of fibromyalgia. METHODS: Repeated cold stress (RCS) was used as a fibromyalgia model. Pain behavior was examined using the von Frey test, and neuronal activation was examined immunohistochemically as activating transcription factor (ATF)3 expression...

BACKGROUND: Children with chronic ankle instability (CAI) frequently experience ankle unsteadiness, causing trips, falls, and ankle sprain injuries resulting in poor quality of life. A specific exercise program focused on physical and psychological purposes in children with CAI is needed. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of a 4-week home-based exercise training program using active video games (AVGs) for balance, motor proficiency, foot and ankle ability, and intrinsic motivation in children with CAI...

BACKGROUND: Ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) are a type of assistive device that can improve the walking ability of individuals with neurological disorders. Adjusting stiffness is a common way to customize settings according to individuals' impairment. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to design a variable-stiffness AFO by stiffness module and characterize the AFO stiffness range to provide subject-specific settings for the users. METHODS: We modeled AFO using bending beams with varying fulcrum positions to adjust the stiffness...

BACKGROUND: Foot lesions in suckling piglets have been associated with poor flooring in several studies and were recently proposed to be indicative of swine inflammatory and necrosis syndrome. However, identical findings are also the typical outcome of various non-infectious causes; thus, further risk analysis is needed. The objective of this study was to describe the development of heel bruising, coronary band lesions and forelimb skin abrasion in suckling pigs up to 5 days of age...

Introduction: Dancing en pointe requires ballet dancers to stand on the tips of their toes while wearing a structured pointe shoe. Understanding the effect of pointe shoes on ballet dancers' biomechanics, function, symptoms and skin health is essential to guide shoe development and ultimately improve dancer performance. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review was to map the evidence and identify knowledge gaps related to the effect of wearing pointe shoes on professional and recreational ballet dancers...

CONTEXT: Plantar intrinsic foot muscle strength training is difficult to master to a degree sufficient to elicit muscle hypertrophy in most individuals. It is possible that combining neuromuscular electrostimulation (NMES) and blood flow restriction (BFR) can elicit plantar intrinsic foot muscle hypertrophy regardless of the individual's technique. This study aimed to determine the effects of NMES training with BFR on acute muscle swelling in the abductor hallucis. DESIGN: Randomized, controlled, single-blind trial design...

Foot orthoses (FO) are a commonly prescribed intervention to alter foot function during walking although their effects have been primarily studied in the extrinsic muscles of the foot. Furthermore, enhancing sensory feedback under the foot sole has been recently shown to alter extrinsic muscle activity during gait; however, the effects of FOs with enhanced sensory feedback on plantar intrinsic foot muscles (PIFMs) remain unknown. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of FOs with and without sensory facilitation on PIFM activity during locomotion...

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is a highly contagious pathogen that has caused significant economic losses in the livestock industry. Peptide vaccines engineered with the protective epitopes of FMDV have provided a safer alternative for disease prevention than the traditional inactivated vaccines. However, the immunogenicity of the peptide is usually poor and therefore an adjuvant is required. Here, we showed that recombinant T4 phages displaying the B-cell epitope of the FMDV VP1 protein (VP1130-158 ), without additional adjuvants, induced similar levels of antigen-specific IgG1 but higher levels of IgG2a compared to the peptide vaccine...

BACKGROUND: Human enteroviruses A71 (EV-A71) and D68 (EV-D68) are the suspected causative agents of hand-foot-and-mouth disease, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, acute flaccid myelitis, and acute flaccid paralysis in children. Until now, no cure nor mucosal vaccine existed for EV-A71 and EV-D68. Novel mucosal bivalent vaccines are highly important for preventing EV-A71 and EV-D68 infections. METHODS: In this study, formalin-inactivated EV-A71 and EV-D68 were used as antigens, while PS-G, a polysaccharide from Ganoderma lucidum, was used as an adjuvant...

UNLABELLED: We investigated how neural oscillations code the hierarchical nature of stress rhythms in speech and how stress processing varies with language experience. By measuring phase synchrony of multilevel EEG-acoustic tracking and intra-brain cross-frequency coupling, we show the encoding of stress involves different neural signatures (delta rhythms = stress foot rate; theta rhythms = syllable rate), is stronger for amplitude vs. duration stress cues, and induces nested delta-theta coherence mirroring the stress-syllable hierarchy in speech...

BACKGROUND: Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common infectious disease that poses a serious threat to children all over the world. However, the current prediction models for HFMD still require improvement in accuracy. In this study, we proposed a hybrid model based on autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and long short-term memory (LSTM) to predict the trend of HFMD. METHODS: The data used in this study was sourced from the National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Chongqing, China...

BACKGROUND: Foot arch dynamics play an important role in dynamic postural control. Association between foot arch dynamics and postural control among adolescent athletes remains poorly explored. OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between foot arch dynamics, intrinsic foot muscle (IFM) morphology, and toe flexor strength and dynamic postural stability after jump landing and repetitive rebound jump performance in competitive adolescent athletes. METHODS: Based on foot arch dynamics, evaluated from relative change in the foot arch height in sitting and standing positions, 50 adolescent athletes were classified as stiff, normal, or flexible...

OBJECTIVES: The positional repertoire of the human-chimpanzee last common ancestor is critical for reconstructing the evolution of bipedalism. African apes and humans share a heel strike plantigrade foot posture associated with terrestriality. Previous research has established that modern humans have a relatively large and intrinsically robust calcaneal tuber equipped to withstand heel strike forces associated with bipedal walking and running. However, it is unclear whether African apes have a relatively larger calcaneal tuber than non-heel-striking primates, and how this trait might have evolved among anthropoids...

OBJECTIVE: Our study determined the impact of 12-week aerobic exercise (AE) and aerobic + resistance exercises (AE + RE) within the green exercise concept, on senior fitness, aerobic capacity, and intrinsic capacity (IC). METHODS: The study was a multicenter, randomized controlled study conducted at two senior living facilities with individuals aged 65 and above whose cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal conditions are suitable for moderate exercise and who have normal cognition levels...

BACKGROUND: Minimizing postural sway during tiptoe standing is essential for ballet dancers. Investigation of the activity of the plantar intrinsic foot muscles (PIFMs) may provide insight into postural sway in dancers. Herein, we compared PIFM activity during tiptoe standing between dancers and non-dancers and examined its relationship with postural sway. METHODS: We enrolled 14 female ballet dancers and 13 female non-dancers. Electromyography (EMG) amplitudes of 64 channels of PIFMs and center of pressure (COP) data were recorded during bipedal tiptoe standing tasks performed with ankle plantarflexion angles of 20°, 40°, and 60° (dancers only)...

BACKGROUND: Adipose lesions of nerve are rare tumors that can cause nerve symptoms from either intrinsic or extrinsic compression. OBSERVATIONS: The authors present a case of a patient with a 10-year history of progressive, persistent leg pain and dorsal foot paresthesias/dysesthesias. Imaging revealed several nondistinct nodules of indeterminate significance along the course of the superficial peroneal nerve (SPN). Surgery demonstrated six distinct extraneural lipomas studded on a 10-cm segment of the main SPN and one of its muscular branches in the midleg...

BACKGROUND: Assessment of neuromuscular dysfunction following a lateral ankle sprain during running typically focuses on the activities of the extrinsic foot muscles. Although the interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic foot muscles has been reported, there are no studies on the activities of intrinsic foot muscles in individuals with chronic ankle instability and ankle sprain copers. RESEARCH QUESTION: Do copers and individuals with chronic ankle instability (CAI) have different abductor hallucis activity? METHODS: This study included 11 controls, 11 copers, and 16 CAI participants...

BACKGROUND: The intrinsic and extrinsic foot softtissue structures that apply force and support the medial longitudinal arch (MLA) have been implicated in the development of flat feet. However, the relationship between the changes in MLA height under increasing load and the morphological and mechanical properties of individual intrinsic and extrinsic foot soft tissue structures is not fully understood. RESEARCH QUESTION: To examine the morphological and mechanical characteristics of the foot soft tissue structures in flat feet when subjected to loading...

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to extend on our previous research by exploring patient-perceived factors that lead to their Lower Extremity Amputations (LEA). LEA are a serious complication of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), LEA are thought to be preventable with early detection and management of risk factors. Our previous study identified that these factors extend beyond the typical biological and modifiable risk factors and may also extend to patient awareness and competing priorities...

BACKGROUND: Plantar intrinsic foot muscles (PIFMs) are composed of 10 muscles and play an essential role in achieving functional diversity in the foot. Previous studies have identified that the morphological profiles of PIFMs vary between individuals. The morphological profiles of a muscle theoretically reflect its output potentials: the physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) of a muscle is proportional to its maximum force generation, and the muscle fiber length (FL) is its shortening velocity...