Quantitative measurement of subtalar joint passive stiffness in children with cerebral palsy

摘要

Subtalar joint (STJ) passive stiffness is critical to foot valgus deformity for children. The aim of this study was to develop a STJ passive stiffness measuring device to obtain the STJ passive stiffness. The reliability of clinical measurements was used to assess the STJ passive stiffness in weight bearing between normal children and those with cerebral palsy (CP). Ten feet of five non-disabled children and ten feet of seven with CP taken of affected foot were collected to measure their STJ passive stiffness (6.5 ± 2.1 years vs 6.3 ± 1.9 years). The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was used to assess the reliability of the device for measuring STJ passive stiffness. Statistical analysis was conducted using one-way ANOVA to assess between-group differences. ICCs were 0.98 for inter-reliabilities STJ passive stiffness of CP group and 0.99 for control group. STJ passive stiffness can be used to quantitatively assess the progressive changes of foot valgus deformity. It is concluded that STJ passive stiffness is a reliable measurement due to its high repeatability.