A novel method of assessing proprioception in the foot-ankle joint complex after lateral ankle sprain.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the validity of a novel method for assessing intra-foot proprioception impaired by chronic ankle instability (CAI) and its association with perceived ankle instability, and to include a conventional joint position reproduction (JPR).

DESIGN

Case-control study.

SETTING

University laboratory.

PARTICIPANTS

Eleven controls and 19 individuals with CAI.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A circumduction reproduction test was developed to evaluate proprioception by measuring absolute errors between eyes-opened and closed conditions during ankle circumduction movement, consisting of inversion and eversion phases. Errors in hallux marker trajectory and intra-foot joint relative angles were analyzed. Additionally, the JPR was administered to comparison with the novel method.

RESULTS

During the eversion phase, the CAI group had significantly more errors in the X and Y component than the control group. The Pearson's r between the X component and IdFAI was 0.354 (p = 0.054). The X component correlated with the movement of the rearfoot, midfoot and forefoot, with correlations of r > 0.4. However, the JPR did not detect differences between two groups (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The circumduction reproduction test has discriminant validity for distinguishing between two groups and may provide an advantage over JPR.