RESUMO
A subjective assessment of the shape of the hind limb of purebred Texel lambs was evaluated as an in vivo predictor of carcass composition and muscularity. Lambs were taken from two flocks that were managed in a common environment, but which had either been selected for lean tissue growth rate or for improved conformation. Lambs were slaughtered at a mean age of 139 days at the end of an 11 week performance test in which they were reared indoors on a concentrate diet. Pre-slaughter measurements of live weight and ultrasonic muscle (UMD) and fat (UFD) depths at the position of the third lumbar vertebra, body length (L) and a subjective leg shape score were recorded. After slaughter, measurements were recorded for carcass side length (SL), leg length (T) and the maximum width (A) and depth (B) of the longissimus thoracis and lumborum (LTL) muscle. The side was fully dissected and various muscle weights and skeletal dimensions were used to calculate indices of muscularity as â(muscle weight/length) per unit length or as UMD/L, A/SL or B/SL. The leg shape score was positively correlated with lean weight (0.23) and proportion (0.24), lean:bone ratio (0.25), measures of LTL dimensions (0.27-0.38) and muscularity traits (0.27-0.57) but was not significantly (P>0.05) correlated with fat weights or proportions in the carcass. Live weight was the best single predictor of lean weight (RSD=0.403) and the addition of leg shape score (RSD=0.381) to prediction equations was less effective than the inclusion of UMD and UFD in combination (RSD=0.357). The addition of leg shape score to equations that included ultrasonic traits gave a significant (P<0.05) but marginal improvement in prediction (RSD=0.347). The leg shape score was the most useful in vivo predictor of carcass muscularity traits and, with R(2) in the range 0.30-0.50, had comparable predictive power to a leg muscularity score derived from muscle weight and femur length. It is concluded that the leg shape score showed potential as a predictor of carcass muscularity that was largely independent of live weight and fatness at a fixed age and was marginally associated with superior lean yield and lean:bone ratio.
RESUMO
Subtalar ankle inversion with and without AirStirrup application was evaluated using high speed cinematographic techniques and a specially designed platform that inverts the ankle 35 O. Eighteen subjects aged 19 to 35 and with no history of ankle injury participated in the study. Two trials were filmed for each subject. Although the same ankle was tested in each trial, AirStirrups were applied to both ankles in one trial and to neither in the other trial so subjects could not anticipate the inversion stress. Points marked on the knee (posterior), the Achilles tendon, and the distal calcaneous were digitized. These data were smoothed employing cubic splines and used to calculate the maximum angular displacement (inversion) at the subtalar joint in each of the conditions tested. A t-test revealed a significantly (p c 0.001) larger inversion angle for the ankle not braced with fhe AirStirrup. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 1987;9(5):190-193.
RESUMO
The purposes of this paper are to describe an objective technique developed to assess the dynamic response of the peroneal muscles to a sudden inversion motion and to report the results obtained from testing injured and noninjured ankles. A platform was constructed to drop the ankle into a controlled degree of inversion while measuring the time to peroneal response and the angular rotation. Thirty volunteers were tested, 15 of whom had experienced a unilateral ankle sprain 3- 10 months prior to testing. Results show a trend toward delayed peroneal response and greater angular displacement at the time of peroneal response in injured ankles but analysis of variance showed no significant difference. The total angular displacement in the injured ankles was significantly greater. This objective technique could be used to evaluate treatment regimens and, by testing ankles soon after injury and serially, to evaluate readiness to return to activity. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 1985;7(3):107-109.
