Sérgio T Fonseca

Federal University of Minas Gerais | UFMG · Departamento de Fisioterapia

This study estimated the contribution of the midfoot joint complex (MJC) kinematics to the pelvis anterior–posterior positions during the stance phase of walking and investigated whether the MJC is functionally coordinated with the lower limb joints to maintain similar pelvic positions across steps. Hip, knee, ankle, and MJC sagittal angles were me...

Background Strengthening the hip and trunk muscles may decrease foot pronation in upright standing due to expected increases in hip passive torque and lower-limb external rotation. However, considering the increased pronation caused by a more varus foot-ankle alignment, subjects with more varus may experience smaller or no postural changes after st...

Background: Fatigue is associated with increased injury risk along with changes in balance control and task performance. Musculoskeletal injury rates in runners are high and often result from an inability to adapt to the demands of exercise and a breakdown in the interaction among different biological systems. This study aimed to investigate whethe...

Resumo Objetivo O objetivo deste trabalho foi comparar os parâmetros espaço temporais e cinemáticos da marcha de crianças típicas em três condições: descalças, usando calçados biomiméticos e, calçados de uso diário (não biomiméticos - próprios das crianças). Métodos Foram analisadas variáveis espaço temporais (velocidade, comprimento e largura da p...

The upper body and trunk muscles are crucial to perform soccer kicks. Resistance training targeting these muscles may modify the pattern adopted during kicking. This study aimed to investigate the effect of resistance training of the arm and anterior trunk muscles on instep kicking kinematics. Twenty-six male participants were randomly allocated in...

Neuromuscular fatigue (NMF) reduces the musculoskeletal system's ability to produce force during activities like running. Analysis of motor behaviour's regularity may identify motor system deficits caused by fatigue. The present study investigated whether the NMF of lower limb extensors alters the regularity of running movement and whether this pos...

Older runners (OR) are increasing their participation in races. Aging may impact the adopted running pattern. Hence, the analysis of stiffness and the inter-joint lower limb coordination in the sagittal plane could contribute to investigating this impact. This study aimed to compare the vertical stiffness (Kvert) and the inter-joint lower limb coor...

Objective: To identify subgroups of runners' profiles who had or did not have a History of Running-Related Injury in the Shank and Foot (HRRI-SF). Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: Clinical measures of passive ankle stiffness (measured as ankle position (compliance) to index passive joint stiffness), forefoot-shank alignment, peak torque of an...

Tracking hip and thigh axial rotation has limited accuracy due to the large soft tissue artifact. We proposed a tracking-markers cluster anchored to the prominent distal part of the iliotibial band (ITB) to improve thigh tracking. We investigated if the ITB cluster improves accuracy compared with a traditionally used thigh cluster. We also compared...

Background: Postural control results from non-linear interactions of multiple neuromusculoskeletal elements and contextual factors. The use of non-linear analyses that consider the temporal evolution of postural adjustments, such as sample entropy, could inform about the changes in postural control due to contextual disturbances such as sleep depr...

Studies have shown that musculoskeletal pain is one of the most prevalent health conditions that affects many individuals worldwide. In older adults, persistent pain is a widely prevalent and a disabling condition of multiple contributing factors: physical, mental, and social. Consequently, their quality of life is hampered. We aimed to analyze the...

Walking experience is crucial for inter-joint coordination during gait acquisition. Toddlers show asymmetrical lower limb function during early locomotion for transferring body weight (regulatory limb) and steering the direction of walking (impulse limb). This study aimed to investigate the association between coordination patterns and walking expe...

Background Biofeedback has been used by rehabilitation professionals in the treatment of poststroke function impairments. Purpose Investigate the efficacy of any type of biofeedback intervention for the treatment of upper limb function in individuals following stroke. Study Design Systematic review of literature with meta-analysis. Methods Liter...

Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate intra- and interrater reliability and minimal detectable change (MDC) of clinical measures proposed to assess tibial torsion and the posture of the lower limbs and pelvis in the transverse plane. Methods Twenty-five able-bodied and asymptomatic participants (mean age 27 ± 4.03, 12 women) were...

Background Alterations of frontal plane patellar alignment could be related to lower limb disorders. Clinical assessment must be able to identify the influence of non-local factors in patellar alignment. Objective To identify the influence of lower limb torque, range of motion (ROM), and foot alignment on patellar rotation in healthy athletes. Me...

Introduction This study aimed to evaluate the effect of scapular dyskinesis and its interaction with hand dominance and humerothoracic angles on three-dimensional scapular kinematics in asymptomatic individuals in all planes of arm motion. Methods Forty-five asymptomatic participants, seventeen men and twenty-eight women, were separated into two g...

Resumo Objetivo Avaliar o comportamento do arco longitudinal medial do pé (ALM) e os parâmetros cinemáticos dos membros inferiores durante a deambulação com calçados biomiméticos (CBs) e não biomiméticos (NB1, NB2, NB3 e NB4) em crianças no início da fase de aquisição da marcha. Métodos Foram avaliadas quatro crianças no início da fase de aquisição...

Background Proper ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (ADF-ROM) allows the anterior roll of the tibia relative to the foot during the midstance phase of gait, which contributes to forward movement of the body. Individuals with reduced passive ADF-ROM may present altered movement patterns during gait due to an inefficient anterior tibial roll over th...

The multibody nature of the musculoskeletal system makes each applied force potentially accelerate all body segments. Hence, muscles’ actions on the kinematics of crossed and non-crossed joints should be estimated based on multibody dynamics. The objective of this study was to systematically investigate the actions of main lower limb muscles on the...

Background The Rizzoli Foot Model (RFM) and Oxford Foot Model (OFM) are used to analyze segmented foot kinematics with independent tracking markers. Alternatively, rigid marker clusters can be used to improve markers’ visualization and facilitate analyzing shod gait. Research question Are there differences in angles from the RFM and OFM, obtained...

Fast walking may require a non-uniform change of dynamic stiffness among lower limb joints to deal with this daily task’s demands. The change of dynamic joint stiffness may be distinct between females and males. This study aimed to test for differences in dynamic stiffness among lower limb joints in response to increased walking speed in males and...

This study aimed to investigate the effects of knee flexion during the preparation phase of a serve on the tennis serve performance, using inertial sensors. Thirty-two junior tennis players were divided into two groups based on their maximum knee flexion during the preparation phase of serve: Smaller (SKF) and Greater (GKF) Knee Flexion. Their rack...

Objectives To describe and compare the incidence, prevalence, severity, and profile of injuries (acute and overuse) and illness between female and male youth elite judokas during 30 weeks of a sports season. Design Prospective cohort study. Methods A total of 154 elite youth judokas (83 males and 71 females) were assessed from January to August 2...

Purpose: To explore the effects of hippotherapy for children with cerebral palsy (CP) with different ages, topographies and severities. Method: Before-after study with three longitudinal measurements: (T1) initial, (T2) 3-months, (T3) 6-months after T1. CP children (n=31) stratified by age (4-7; 8-12 years), severity (mild, moderate, severe), topog...

This study aimed to investigate the regularity of the lower limb joint kinematics in runners with and without a history of running-related injuries. The second aim was to verify if the movement pattern regularities are different among the lower limb joints. Eighteen asymptomatic recreational runners with and without a history of running-related inj...

The addition of a load during walking requires changes in the movement pattern. The investigation of the dynamic joint stiffness behavior may help to understand the lower limb joints’ contribution to these changes. This study aimed to investigate the dynamic stiffness of lower limb joints in response to the increased load carried while walking. Thi...

Objective The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the effect of exercise-based programmes in the prevention of non-contact musculoskeletal injuries among football players in comparison to a control group. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Data sources MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, CINAHL, PEDro a...

Background Increased foot pronation during walking has been associated with low back pain. This association may be due to the impact of increased pronation on pelvic motion. Objective To investigate the effects of increased bilateral foot pronation on pelvic kinematic in frontal and transverse planes during the loading response phase of gait. Met...

Movement analysis provides a vast amount of data, which, frequently, are not used in the clinical decision-making process. For example, traditional gait data visualization is based on a time-based display of joint angles, but part of the information is lost when these time-series are averaged across different gait strides. Horizon graph is a data d...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the angular kinetic energy transfers and expenditure among the trunk (bisegmented), the pelvis and the kick limb during maximal soccer instep kicking, and to characterize kicking kinetics and kinematics. Eighteen adult male amateur soccer players (24.0 ± 4.1 years old) were assessed. Three-dimensional ki...

Background Some traditional single-leg squat tests focused on number of repetitions may not demand precise control of lower limb dynamic alignment, especially in the frontal and transverse planes. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate test–retest reliability and construct validity of a novel single-leg squat test – the ‘precision-squa...

The midfoot joint complex (MFJC) is related to the mechanics and efficiency of the walking propulsive phase and low midfoot passive stiffness may require compensatory foot and ankle joint moments to avoid excessive pronation and inefficient propulsion. This study aimed to investigate the kinematics and kinetics of the MFJC and ankle during the prop...

Background Hip motion in the transverse plane is coupled with foot motion in the frontal plane during closed kinematic activities, such as gait. Considering that movement patterns and bone alignment might influence passive mechanical properties of joints in the long term, it is possible that hip passive stiffness and foot complex stiffness and alig...

Objective To investigate whether a common measure of sagittal pelvic torsion based on the superior iliac spines behave similarly to predictions of a rigid (non-torsioned) plane, when leg length discrepancies (LLD) are induced. Method Twenty-four young asymptomatic participants were subjected to pelvic posture measurements that use the anterior-sup...

Objective The objective was to establish normative data for hip strength, flexibility, and stiffness in male soccer athletes and to investigate the effect of age and limb dominance on these variables. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Soccer team physical therapy department. Participants A total of 293 asymptomatic male soccer athletes were assess...

Background The family‐centred approach is fundamental in the therapeutic process of children with cerebral palsy (CP), and the increased competence of parents about therapeutic devices, especially orthoses, can facilitate its implementation, thus intensifying the benefits that this device provides. The aim of this study was to understand the percep...

Collective behaviors in sports teams emerge from the coordination between players formed from their perception of shared affordances. Recent studies based on the theoretical framework of ecological dynamics reported new analytical tools to capture collective behavior variables that describe team synergies. Here, we introduce a novel hypothesis base...

The understanding that sports injury is the result of the interaction among many factors and that specific profiles could increase the risk of the occurrence of a given injury was a significant step in establishing programs for injury prevention. However, injury forecasting is far from being attained. To be able to estimate future states of a compl...

The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of articles which have already been published in Physical Therapy in Sport (2018) e1-e7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2020.04.006. The duplicate articles have therefore been withdrawn. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about...

Background Adherence to the use of recommended measures/criteria for return to sport (RTS) clearance after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is crucial for successful rehabilitation. Objectives The purpose of this study was to describe the current clinical practice of Brazilian physical therapists that treat patients after ACLR, inc...

To assess the test – retest reliability and sensitivity of an instrument developed to measure the passive mechanical properties of the midfoot joint complex (MFJC), nine female and three male healthy young adults were evaluated in two different days by two experienced examiners. After proper participant positioning on the instrument, the left foref...

Background The alignment of the foot-ankle complex may influence the kinematics and kinetics of the entire lower limb during walking. Objectives This study investigated the effect of different magnitudes of varus alignment of the foot-ankle complex (small versus large) on the kinematics and kinetics of foot, ankle, knee, and hip in the frontal and...

Altered scapular movement in subacromial pain syndrome has been demonstrated using discrete data reduction approach. However, this approach does not consider the data collinearity and variability, and scapular translations are poorly investigated in symptomatic individuals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the scapular rotation and tran...

Background: Hip external rotation stiffness, midfoot passive mechanical resistance and foot alignment may influence on ankle, knee and hip movement in the frontal and transverse planes during gait. Research question: Are hip stiffness, midfoot mechanical resistance and foot alignment associated with ankle, knee and hip kinematics during gait? M...

Due to the relative motion among the foot rays, the present study aimed to compare the rigidity as well as the forefoot – rearfoot kinematics obtained from three forefoot tracking marker clusters during walking and foot pronation-supination (PROSUP). Nineteen healthy adults performed six walking trials and ten cycles of foot PROSUP movements record...

Objective To compare the gait event identification of five algorithms recommended in the literature with those provided by force plate (gold standard) in children with unilateral or bilateral spastic cerebral palsy (SCP). Methods This was a cross-sectional study of the gait of three girls and four boys with a mean age of 8.6 ± 4.7 years. Four chil...

Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) struggle to perform a host of daily activities. Many of these involve forceful interaction with objects and thus implicate dynamic touch. Therefore, deficits in dynamic touch could underlie functional difficulties presented by ADHD children. We investigated whether performance on a dynam...

Background The clinical measure of forefoot-shank alignment (FSA) predicts the amount of foot pronation during weight-bearing tasks. This may be mediated by a relationship between FSA and the mechanical resistance of the midfoot joint complex (MFJC) to forefoot inversion, which is a component of weight-bearing foot pronation. Objective To investi...

Background. Strengthening of hip and trunk muscles can modify pelvis and hip movements. However, the varus alignment of the foot-ankle complex (FAC) may influence the effects of muscle strengthening, due to the relationship of FAC alignment with pelvic and hip kinematics. This study evaluated the effects of hip and trunk muscle strengthening on pel...

Background Hippotherapy is a complementary therapeutic modality that seeks to promote functional changes in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Knowledge of the direct and indirect changes resulting from this therapy will help identify which groups of children with cerebral palsy can benefit from this type of therapy. The present study aimed to anal...

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of clinical measures related to forward shoulder posture (pectoralis minor index [PMI], scapular index [SI], abduction index [AI], acromion to the wall index [AWI] acromion to the treatment table index [ATI], and thoracic curvature [TC]), and to investigate the association (redunda...

Purpose: Reduced propulsive capability can impact negatively on mobility activities of many children with spastic unilateral cerebral palsy (SUCP). This study investigated the effect of a task-oriented training program combined with functional electrical stimulation (FES) on the motor capacity of children with SUCP. Methods: Single-case A-B design...

Background The demonstration of the relationship between midfoot passive mechanical resistance and foot pronation during gait may guide the development of assessment and intervention methods to modify foot motion during gait and to alter midfoot passive mechanical resistance. Research question Is foot pronation during the stance phase of gait re...

A presente invenção propõe um dispositivo para medição da rigidez passiva das articulações do antepé em relação mediopé utilizando um sensor de torque e um potenciômetro. O dispositivo compreende um conjunto de peças para imobilização de parte dos membros inferiores e do tornozelo, contendo um medidor de torque e um medidor de rotação, que são liga...

The relationship between shoulder pain and scapular dyskinesis (SDK) is unclear. Differences between groups with and without SDK have been demonstrated, focusing on the amount of scapular motion at specific degrees of humeral elevation. However, this approach does not consider the temporal information and shape of the scapular motion temporal serie...

Study Design Clinical measurement, cross-sectional. Background Investigations on the causes of patellar tendinopathy (PT) should consider impairments at the hip and foot/ankle since they are known to influence movement patterns and affect patellar tendon loading. Objectives To investigate, by means of CART analysis, impairments of the hip and foot/...

STUDY DESIGN: Controlled Laboratory Study; Cross-sectional. OBJECTIVES: 1) to compare proprioceptive acuity and passive ankle stiffness between persons with and without functional ankle instability, and 2) to assess the influence of passive joint stiffness on the proprioceptive acuity in persons with functional ankle instability. BACKGROUND: Defic...

Background: Gait speed and metabolic cost are indicators of functional capacity in children with cerebral palsy. Uncovering their mechanisms helps guide therapeutic actions. Objectives: To investigate the contributions of energy-generating and energy-conserving mechanisms to gait speed and metabolic cost of children with unilateral cerebral pals...

Background: Therapeutic suits or clothing whether associated with intensive protocols or not, became popular in the rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy. Studies have reported positive effects of these suits on children's posture, balance, motor function and gait. A summary of current literature may help guide therapeutic actions. Objec...

considering its multiple joints. The findings of Bruening et al. [1] suggest that the ankle power in the sagittal plane during stance phase of gait obtained from a uni-segmented foot model (USFM) is overestimated, when comparing to a biomechanical model with the foot bi-segmented into forefoot and rearfoot (BSFM) in subjects in maturational age (ar...

During the propulsion phase of gait, the joints ankle and midfoot (forefoot in relation to rearfoot) plantar flex and produce mechanical work in the sagittal plane [1]. To make the foot a rigid lever, it is expected that the foot supinates, after plantar flexion. However, this pattern is not always observed, since some individuals have supination i...

Background: Strengthening of the hip and trunk muscles has the potential to change lower limb kinematic patterns, such as excessive hip medial rotation and adduction during weight-bearing tasks. This study aimed to investigate the effect of hip and trunk muscles strengthening on hip muscle performance, hip passive properties, and lower limb kinema...

Background Patellar tendinopathy is a clinically identified overload injury associated to jumping activities. The symptoms may last for years, affect sports participation and even lead to the end of a sport career. Therefore, is necessary to understand the profile of injury/complain in a sports team in order to plan preventive strategies. Objectiv...

The impingement syndrome is a dynamic impairment of the shoulder girdle. Muscles dysfunctions like decreased force in the muscle anterior serratus, as well as decreased lower trapezius moment and increased stretching re- sistance in the pectorallis minus muscle have been related to the impinge- ment syndrome. The aim of the present study was to com...

Background: Reducing rearfoot eversion is a commonly desired effect in clinical practice to prevent or treat musculoskeletal dysfunction. Interventions that pull the lower limb into external rotation may reduce rearfoot eversion. Objective: This study investigated whether the use of external rotation elastic bands, of different levels of stiffne...

Objetivo: O objetivo do presente estudo foi comparar a rigidez dinâmica do complexo articular do mediopé no plano sagital entre grupos com diferentes magnitudes de pronação do pé durante a fase de apoio da marcha. Hipotetizou-se que indivíduos com níveis maiores de pronação do pé apresentariam valores menores de rigidez do mediopé no plano sagital....

Aiming hand-held tools at targets in space entails adjustments in the dynamical organization of aiming patterns according to the required precision. We asked whether and how these adjustments are modified by the tool’s mass distribution. Twelve participants performed reciprocal aiming movements with a 50-cm long wooden probe. Kinematic patterns of...

Background: Leg length discrepancy greater than 1cm increases odds of progressive knee osteoarthritis in the shorter limb. Methods: Biomechanical data of 15 knee osteoarthritis participants were collected while they walked under two conditions: (1) control - wearing thick sandals; (2) short limb - wearing a thin sandal on the osteoarthritic limb...

Injury prediction is one of the most challenging issues in sports and a key component for injury prevention. Sports injuries aetiology investigations have assumed a reductionist view in which a phenomenon has been simplified into units and analysed as the sum of its basic parts and causality has been seen in a linear and unidirectional way. This re...

Study Design Cross-sectional; clinical assessment. Background Patellar tendinopathy is not always accompanied by PTA. Thus, clinical screening tools to help identify patellar tendon pain patients that have PTA could enhance clinical decision-making and patient's prognosis. Objectives To test the diagnostic accuracy of the VISA-P questionnaire, a si...

In biomechanics, anatomical segments are frequently modeled as rigid bodies. However, this assumption must be done with caution, because of the relative motion between joint complexes, soft tissue motion, and e q u i p me n t n o i s e [ 1 ] . S p e c i f i c a l l y , i n t h e mu l t i - segmented foot complex, the forefoot is composed of fivemov...

Several multi-segment foot models have been published to provide insights about the foot motion [1]. Most of the proposed models have focused on the kinematics of multi-segment foot, and the few kinetic analyses made have concentrated on gait motion assessment only [2]. Nevertheless,understandingthekinematics andkinetics of foot complex during supi...

Although mild leg length discrepancy is related to lower limb injuries, there is no consensus regarding its effects on the biomechanics of the lower limbs during gait. Biomechanical data of 19 healthy participants were collected while they walked under different conditions as described: (1) control condition—wearing flat thick sandals; (2) short li...

Objective: (1) To determine the reference values of hip abductor torque in youth athletes; (2) To investigate the influence of sex, age and sports on hip abductors torque. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Sports clubs. Subjects: 301 volleyball, basketball and futsal athletes between 10 and 19 years of age. Main outcome measures: Mean valu...

Objective: To establish the injury profile of soccer players from a first division Brazilian soccer team. In addition, we investigated the association between the characteristics of the injuries and the player's age and position. Method: Forty-eight players from a Brazilian first division soccer team were followed during one season. Descriptive...

To investigate the association between lower limb alignment, range of motion/flexibility and muscle strength with the presence of patellar tendon abnormalities in male athletes. This was a cross-sectional study. Thirty-one male basketball and volleyball athletes were assessed for ankle dorsiflexion range of motion, shank-forefoot alignment, iliotib...

Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is characterized by anterior knee pain, which may limit the performance of functional activities. The influence of hip joint motion on the development of this syndrome has already been documented in the literature. In this regard, studies have investigated the effectiveness of hip muscle strengthening in patients...