Article

Foot sole tactile sensation provides valuable feedback to the central nervous
system. Acutely reduced foot sensation changes plantar pressure distribution in
standing and gait; however, the effect of chronic foot sole sensory impairment on
plantar pressure distribution is unclear. PURPOSE: This study aims to examine the
effects of peripheral neuropathy (PN) induced chronic sensory loss on plantar
pressure distribution in walking and standing. METHODS: Foot sole sensitivity was
tested at the five sites: big toe (BT), 1st metatarsal (M1), 5th metatarsal (M5),
mid-foot (MF) and heel (HL). Relative peak pressures (RPP) of the five sites were
collected during a 20-s walking on a treadmill at .45 m/s and a 30-s quiet
standing with eyes open. Five-way MANOVA was used to examine the influence of
sensitivity of each site on overall plantar pressure distribution for standing
and walking separately. Tukey's test was used to examine the significant
associations. RESULTS: In standing, the sensitivity of BT affected average RPP at
BT significantly (P<.05), where RPP associated with insensitive BT (8.1+/-5.7%)
was greater than with sensitive BT (4.5+/-4.9%). Furthermore, the RPP at HL was
greater for insensitive MF (36.1+/-17.9%) compared with sensitive MF
(23.6+/-7.4%) (P<.05). No pressure distribution changes were observed in walking.
CONCLUSIONS: Feedback from foot sole tactile sensation in gait is not as
significant as in standing, showing standing balance control relies more on
feedback control mechanism while gait control relies more on feed forward control
mechanism.
CI - Published by Elsevier B.V.

Langue : ANGLAIS