Abstract
BackgroundBlood flow is essential in maintaining tissue health. Thus, compromised blood flow can prevent tissue healing. An adducted hallux, as seen inside a narrow shoe, may put passive tension on the abductor hallucis, compressing the lateral plantar artery into the calcaneus and restricting blood flow. The purposes of this study were to compare lateral plantar artery blood flow before and after passive hallux adduction and to compare blood flow with arch height.MethodsForty-five healthy volunteers (20 female, 25 male; age = 24.8 ± 6.8 yr; height = 1.7 ± 0.1 m; weight = 73.4 ± 13.5 kg) participated in this cross-over design study. Arch height index (AHI) was calculated, and blood flow measurements were obtained using ultrasound (L8-18i transducer, GE Logiq S8). The lateral plantar artery was imaged deep to abductor hallucis for 120 s: 60 s at rest, then 60 s of passive hallux adduction. Maximal passive hallux adduction was performed by applying pressure to the medial side of the hallux. Blood flow was calculated in mL/min, and pre-passive hallux adduction was compared to blood flow during passive hallux adduction.ResultsLog transformed data was used to run a paired t-test between the preadduction and postadduction blood flow. The volume of blood flow was 22.2% lower after passive hallux adduction compared to before (− 0.250 ± 0.063, p < 0.001). As AHI decreased, there was a greater negative change in blood flow. As baseline blood flow increased, there was also a greater negative change in blood flow.ConclusionsOur preliminary findings of decreased blood flow through passive hallux adduction indicate conditions that elicit passive hallux adduction (e.g. wearing narrow-toed shoes) may have important effects on foot blood flow. Individuals with lower AHI appear to have a greater risk of decreased blood flow with passive hallux adduction.
Highlights
Blood flow is essential in maintaining tissue health
Given the importance of blood flow in tissue healing, blood flow may help explain the 46% recurrence rate of plantar fasciitis reported in previous research [12]
Prior to using a log transformation, there was no significant difference found between BL blood flow and Postadduction total blood flow (PATotal) blood flow (BL blood flow = 3.53 ± 8.93 mL/min, PATotal blood flow = 2.16 ± 4.49 mL/min, p = 0.079)
Summary
Blood flow is essential in maintaining tissue health. compromised blood flow can prevent tissue healing. As seen inside a narrow shoe, may put passive tension on the abductor hallucis, compressing the lateral plantar artery into the calcaneus and restricting blood flow. Research suggests that the cause of plantar fasciitis may be multifactorial [5, 6] These factors may include repetitive strain on the plantar fascia, [5,6,7,8] intrinsic foot muscle weakness [9], calf tightness [5], improper shoes [5, 10], pes planus [5,6,7,8, 10], pes cavus [5, 6, 8] and excessive pronation [6, 7]. Given the importance of blood flow in tissue healing, blood flow may help explain the 46% recurrence rate of plantar fasciitis reported in previous research [12]
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