Immediate effect of anti-pronation foot taping on myoelectric activity of knee muscles in patellofemoral pain syndrome: a randomised controlled trial.

Introduction. There is lack of studies on the effect of anti-pronation foot taping on the myoelectric activity of knee muscles. The purpose of this study was to investigate the immediate effect of anti-pronation foot taping on the myoelectric activity of the vastus medialis oblique and vastus lateralis muscles and their activity ratio in patellofemoral pain syndrome. Methods. Twenty-six female patients were randomised into two equal groups. The study group A used augmented low dye taping, while the control group B did not. The patients' age, weight, height and BMi ranged between 18--31 years, 50--73 kg, 1.53--1.72 m and 20--25 kg/m². All patients were evaluated twice; pre- and immediately post-foot taping (pre-test post-test control group design). Normalised data of the myoelectric activity of the knee muscles were recorded using a Neuro-EMG-Micro device during stair climbing and single leg mini-squat. Results. The first 2 x 2 Mixed design MANoVA revealed that the myoelectric activity of the vastus medialis oblique decreased significantly (p = 0.001) during both stair climbing and single leg mini-squat in group A post-taping compared with pre-taping. Similarly, the activity of the vastus medialis oblique decreased significantly (p = 0.019) post-taping in group A compared with group B during single leg mini-squat. The second 2 x 2 Mixed design MANoVA test revealed that the activity ratio decreased significantly (p = 0.001) post-taping compared to pre-taping in group A during stair climbing. Conclusions. Anti-pronation foot taping reduces the activity of the vastus medialis oblique during stair climbing and single leg mini-squat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]