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Dan Wang
Dan
Wang
Giuseppe De Vito
Giuseppe
De Vito
Massimiliano Ditroilo
Massimiliano
Ditroilo
Daniel Fong
Daniel
Fong
Eamonn Delahunt
Eamonn
Delahunt
A comparison of muscle stiffness and musculoarticular stiffness of the knee joint in young athletic males and females
Loughborough University
2016
Knee joint
Quadriceps muscle
Neuromuscular monitoring
Athletic injuries
Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified
2016-03-18 10:01:10
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/A_comparison_of_muscle_stiffness_and_musculoarticular_stiffness_of_the_knee_joint_in_young_athletic_males_and_females/9628790
The objective of this study was to investigate the gender-specific differences in peak torque (PT), muscle
stiffness (MS) and musculoarticular stiffness (MAS) of the knee joints in a young active population.
Twenty-two male and twenty-two female recreational athletes participated. PT of the knee joint extensor
musculature was assessed on an isokinetic dynamometer, MS of the vastus lateralis (VL) muscle was
measured in both relaxed and contracted conditions, and knee joint MAS was quantified using the free
oscillation technique. Significant gender differences were observed for all dependent variables.
Females demonstrated less normalized PT (mean difference (MD) = 0.4 N m/kg, p = 0.005, g2 = 0.17),
relaxed MS (MD = 94.2 N/m, p < .001, g2 = 0.53), contracted MS (MD = 162.7 N/m, p < .001, g2 = 0.53)
and MAS (MD = 422.1 N/m, p < .001, g2 = 0.23) than males. MAS increased linearly with the external load
in both genders with males demonstrating a significantly higher slope (p = 0.019) than females. The
observed differences outlined above may contribute to the higher knee joint injury incidence and prevalence
in females when compared to males.