Physiotherapy Treatment Effects on Ground Reaction Force and Toeout Angles: A Case Study

Mechanical factors are proved to play a pivotal role in both triggering and progressing the course of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) as well as clinical bio-indexes in the intervention assessment. Grasping the variations associated with these factors could be of highly clinical value in decelerating the KOA progression and intervention selection. The purpose of this study was to examine the variation of the vertical ground reaction force components and toe-out angles during walking of one subject as feasible indexes for a certain physiotherapy session. A female subject diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis of both feet was recruited for this study; a ten-session physiotherapy treatment was prescribed for her calf muscles. In order to collect data of walking gait, the subject was asked to walk on a straight and level path that a plantar pressure distribution measurement system, Zebris FDM, was properly inserted. The results showed insignificant reduction in the toe-out angles of both feet after the course physiotherapy sessions (p 0.05). However, the trend of vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) for both feet were approaching normal curve. Moreover, the relativeminimum value of VGRF (FZ2) changed significantly (p 0.05). Therefore, this study indicated that the VGRF is a potential index that could be used in clinical settings while studying the effects of physiotherapy on KOA subjects.