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Copyright of Facta Universitatis: Series Physical Education & Sport is the property of Facta Universitatis, Series Physical Education & Sport and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Facta Universitatis: Series Physical Education & Sport is the property of Facta Universitatis, Series Physical Education & Sport and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: Objective: In sports medicine, muscle strength and joint flexibility of the contralateral limb is used as a rehabilitation goal for the injured extremity. The present study was designed to determine whether side differences in hamstrings and quadriceps muscle strength, or in the ratio between hamstrings and quadriceps strength (H:Q), might be of clinical importance. Design: Cross-sectional study in a randomly selected, population-based cohort. Setting: University hospital in Uppsala. Quadriceps and hamstrings strength was assessed by maximum isokinetic concentric contractions at an angular velocity of 90°/s. Participants: A sample of 159 randomly selected women from Uppsala county population registers, aged 20–39 years, was included in the study. Main outcome measures: Peak isokinetic concentric torques of the quadriceps and hamstrings, and the corresponding H:Q ratios. Results: In this cohort of non-athletes the muscle strength in the dominant leg was on average 8.6% (p <0.001) weaker in the knee flexors, but 5.3% (p = 0.009) stronger in the knee extensor as compared with the non-dominant leg. This gives an H:Q ratio in the dominant leg of 46% as compared with 53% (p > 0.001) in the non-dominant leg. Conclusions: Our study shows that in a population-based sample of women there is a significant asymmetry in leg muscle strength favouring non-dominant leg flexion and dominant leg extension. In this study the H:Q ratio was therefore substantially lower in the dominant leg. Whether this should influence rehabilitation goals must be further investigated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To elucidate the regional difference in swelling in the lower extremities induced by upright sitting, we measured volume of the ankle (Region B) and distal part to the ankle (Region A) of the dominant foot. Eight healthy young female subjects (21.6±1.1 years old) participated in the present study. The volume of the Region A and B in each subject was measured five times between 8:00 to 16:00 using a custom-designed measuring shoe. The rate of the fractional volume increase for the whole leg was expressed as an exponential function y = 3.34(1-e-t/235.1), (R²=0.997). The volume of Region B increased significantly from 194.5±35.8 ml to 200.9±40.0 ml, while the volume of Region A increased from 561.7±50.2 to 579.3±5 1.7 ml. The rate of fractional volume change in Region A was expressed as y = 3.24(1-e-t/242.2), (R²=0.976) and the volume continued to increase slowly throughout the 8-h measurement. The rate of the fractional volume change in Region B was fitted as y 3.41(1-e-t/151.4), (R²=0.949) and the calculated time constant for B was shorter than for Region A by 90.4 mm. These results demonstrate that there exists a regional difference in the swelling rate among the foot regions with a different time constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]