A new approach of the Star Excursion Balance Test to assess dynamic postural control in people complaining from chronic ankle instability

Static Postural Stability in Chronic Ankle Instability, an Ankle Sprain and Healthy Ankles

“…An LAS causes damage to the ligaments surrounding the ankle complex and results in more slack in the ankle musculature, adversely affecting the mechanoreceptors that transmit afferent signals to the somatosensory cortex, which responds to reflex-oriented movement patterns [8,18,25]. Joint position sense is decreased after an LAS due to the increased slack in the musculature, adversely affecting the muscle spindle to sense an over-stretch and counteract it with muscle activation [8,15]. Collectively, proprioception is reliant upon the signals sent by the visual and mechanoreceptors within the body, and because there is a hindrance in the abilities of the mechanoreceptors in the CAI population, CAI individuals become heavily dependent upon visual information to perform stabilization tasks [19,25].…”

“…Thus, an EC test may facilitate the central nervous system to receive afferent information only from the damaged mechanoreceptors, making it increasingly problematic for a CAI individual to perform. This decreased afferent information prompts there to be a significant difference in the reaction time of the musculature's reflexes in a CAI individual [15], leading to an increased BES in the CAI population during an EC test. Because copers and healthy individuals do not rely heavily upon visual information, they are able to perform an EC test more efficiently than CAI individuals.…”

“…Moreover, no significance was found among the populations during an EO test. This can be explained by the accumulation of visual information plus mechanoreceptor information that is sent to the central nervous system to perform the task [15,19,24]. Mechanoreceptor information also assists in the body's ability to activate different muscles during these tasks, but because CAI individuals and copers have altered mechanoreceptors, they may demonstrate altered strategies when compared to healthy individuals [15,19,24].…”

“…In the current study, the CAI individuals demonstrated greater MA than copers and healthy individuals regardless of muscle type in an EO test. Damage to these mechanoreceptors due to an LAS leads to an inability to produce force by the surrounding musculatures that elicit specific movements such as eversion, plantarflexion, and dorsiflexion [8,15,25]. CAI individuals have developed a motor recruitment strategy that allows them to activate the lower extremity muscles prematurely or have a heightened response to compensate for this lack of force production at the ankle joint [8].…”

Effects of mobilisation with movement (MWM) on anatomical and clinical characteristics of chronic ankle instability: a randomised controlled trial protocol

“…After performing a maximum of four non-recorded trials for familiarisation, the next trial for each direction will be recorded for the purpose of analysis [52, 53]. Normalised SEBT values will be obtained by dividing the excursion distance by the participant’s leg length (the distance between the anterior superior iliac spine and the ipsilateral medial malleolus), and then multiplying by 100 [52, 54]. Data for centre of pressure (CoP) velocity (V) to quantify spatio-temporal parameters (VCoP-total, VCoP-mediolateral, VCoP-anteroposterior) will be acquired at 100 Hz, under the foot during unipodal stance [52].…”