MEASUREMENT OF THE MEDIAL LONGITUDINAL ARCH

Although clinical evidence suggests a causal relationship between arch structure and musculoskeletal injury patterns, biological variations in soft-tissue structures effect the accuracy of arch-height measureme nts, Medial longitudinal arch (MLA) structure was assessed clinically and radiographically in 100 consecutive patients with foot problems. I ntraclass correlation coefficients were calculated for three radiograp hic parameters and three anthropometric parameters of the MLA. Intrara ter and interrater reliability estimates for the radiographic measurem ents were uniformly excellent. Intrarater reliability coefficients wer e higher than interrater coefficients for the three tested anthropomet ric parameters. The strengths of associations between anthropometric a nd radiographic data were assessed with Pearson correlation coefficien ts. The clinically determined ratio of navicular height-to-foot length correlated most closely with the radiographic indices of MLA structur e. (C) 1995 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and th e American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation