Vastus medialis oblique and vastus lateralis activity during a double-leg semisquat with or without hip adduction in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome.

Ping Miao,Chuhuai Wang,Hao Liu,Yi Xu,Cuihuan Pan

doi:10.1186/s12891-015-0736-6

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose was to investigate the effect of double-leg semisquat with hip adduction on the activation of vastus medialis oblique (VMO) and vastus lateralis (VL) in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS).MethodsThirty patients with PFPS were designated to the study group, while 30 healthy matched subjects were enrolled in the control group. The activation of VL and VMO was recorded with surface electromyography (EMG) during double-leg semisquat (DS) and double-leg semisquat with hip adduction (DS-HA). The time domain and frequency domain indexes of the electromyography data were collected for analysis.ResultsIn the study group, the time domain indexes (RMS, IEMG) and frequency domain index (MPF) of VL were significant higher than VMO in the test of DS (P < 0.05); and the time domain of VMO was significantly higher in the test of DS-HA when compared to DS (P < 0.05) while there was no difference in the activation of VL.ConclusionsIn the study group, an increase in activity of the VMO was observed through the surface EMG signal in the double-leg semisquat exercise with hip adduction compared to the exercise without hip adduction. This finding indicates that VMO activation can be more selectively obtained through the exercise with hip adduction which can help balance the VL and VMO.

Highlights

The purpose was to investigate the effect of double-leg semisquat with hip adduction on the activation of vastus medialis oblique (VMO) and vastus lateralis (VL) in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS)
There were no significant differences between the two groups for the variables listed in Table 1, which indicated that the subjects in both groups were comparable (Table 1)
This study shows that the values of Root mean square (RMS) and Integrated EMG (IEMG) of the VMO were significantly lower than the VL for PFPS patients

Summary

Introduction

The purpose was to investigate the effect of double-leg semisquat with hip adduction on the activation of vastus medialis oblique (VMO) and vastus lateralis (VL) in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS). Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) can be defined as retropatellar or peripatellar pain resulting from physical and biomechanical changes in the patellofemoral joint. The pain is most prominent when ascending or descending stairs, squatting, or prolonged sitting with the knees flexed [1]. This is the most common diagnosis [1] in outpatients complaining of knee pain. PFPS has an incidence between 15 and 25 % [2], accounting for 25 % [3] of sports-related knee injuries.

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