Dear List,
Firstly apologies for posting a question which may seem very basic
and some might think could be easily answered by a good literature
search. I have tried to search the archives and am unable to access
the server for some reason.
Anyway here it is.
We have set our first year physiotherapy students a
biomechanics assignment to examine the joint reaction forces in the
knee and the force in biceps femoris muscle during a simple knee
flexion exercise with a weight. They were to create a simple model
(they are only first years!) and analyse the forces at three
different positions during the exercise. I have the assignments back
now and they have come up with many different answers regarding the
point of attachment of the BF and the angle of attachment. I now have
the task of giving feedback and I would like to provide a model
answer for them. The problem is that I am not sure about the
distance from the centre of rotation to the point of attachment of
the BF on the fibular head, or the angle that the tendon makes with
the bone. Obviously these will have a great deal of influence on the
calculated moment arm of the muscle.
So my question is, does anybody know these values or does anybody
have a reference for them? I have found one reference
Smidt GL Biomechanical Analysis of Knee Flexion and Extension.
Journal of Biomechanics. Vol6 pp79-92, 1973.
Unfortunately we do not have the journal here and I am having
difficulty in locating it at neighbouring institutions. I can put
in an inter-library loan request for it but I don't have time. I
would like to get this out of the way before the Christmas break. Can
anyone help?
Yours,
Judith Lane
Research Assistant, Dept of Orthopaedic Surgery,
University of Edinburgh
AND
Visting lecturer,
Dept of Physiotherapy,
Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh
e-mail J.Lane@ed.ac.uk
tel: 0131 536 4806
fax: 0131 536 4754