PARABOLIC FITTING OF ISOTONIC POWER-ANGLE CURVES TO EVALUATE MOTOR DEFICITS IN PATIENTS SUBMITTED TO ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT RECONSTRUCTION

Abstract

Power-angle curves, describing the isotonic sub-maximal movement of the lower extremities, are better means to evaluate the effects of training protocols and to highlight functional differences between the legs. The aim of this work was to compare the morphology of power-angle curves of pathological subjects (PS) and healthy subjects (HS) and to evaluate the feasibility of this approach to discriminate between pathological and healthy legs. Isotonic evaluation with leg-extension machine was performed on 46 HS and 16 PS previously submitted to knee surgery. The healthy group comprised 33 elderly healthy subjects (EHS) (mean: 65 years) and 13 young healthy subjects (YHS) (mean: 35 years) and the influence of age on the curves was evaluated. All subjects performed a sub-maximal movement with the legs working alone and together. Each curve was interpolated with a parabolic function and the R 2 Pearson coefficient was used as a score for morphological regularity. R 2 of curves of PS obtained with legs working alone were statistically different from those of the HS group, considering both YHS and EHS (p < 0.05). Statistically significant differences between YHS and EHS (p < 0.01) show the importance of age in the modality of performing movements.