This may provide important information to inform interventions for people with BJHS. In this study we investigated the muscle activity

Selleckchem ERK inhibitor within a hypermobile group compared to a healthy control group during postural and balance tasks. We hypothesised that BJHS leads to altered recruitment patterns in muscles of both the pelvis and the lower limbs. Subjects were recruited through email advertising within the Physiotherapy, Occupational Heath and Dietetics departments at the Imperial College Heathcare NHS Trust. Further recruitment involved email advertising within the author’s university year group and research colleagues. Ethical approval was obtained from the Imperial College Ethics Committee. Subjects were drawn from a larger study of individuals with and without knee osteoarthritis. The criteria to be included in the present study were healthy people aged between 18 and 50 years who had no clinical or radiological symptoms of knee osteoarthritis and who can walk without the use of an assistive device. The exclusion criteria were any neurological

or painful musculoskeletal conditions involving Copanlisib price the lower limbs, rheumatoid or any other systemic arthritis and obesity (Body Mass Index (BMI) >35). A total of 16 subjects (4 male and 12 female) were recruited with an average age of 28 years (range 22–45 years). Eight subjects (3 male) had BJHS and 8 subjects (1 male) were controls. Average height (SD), weight and BMI of the hypermobile vs control subjects were 1.6 (0.1) vs 1.7 (0.1) m, 64.8 (5.4) vs 68.6 (9.5) kg and 22.6 (1.4) vs 23.5 (3.7), respectively. There were no significant differences between groups for these parameters. Both hypermobile and control subjects were free from pain at the time of testing, and had no history of back pain. The Beighton Criteria (Beighton et al., 1973) was used to determine whether the subjects

were considered hypermobile. Subjects were shown the movements that make up the Beighton criteria and asked to reproduce them. One point was awarded for each of the nine movements that were re-produced. A score of 4 or greater was heptaminol considered hypermobile for the purpose of this study. Eight of the subjects were hypermobile with an average score of 7.4 (SD 1.7) and eight subjects were controls with an average score of 0.5 (SD 0.9). Seven of the 8 hypermobile subjects demonstrated lower limb hypermobilty (hyperextended knee joints); none of the control subjects had lower limb hypermobility. None of the subjects were seeing a rheumatologist or other specialist for their joints and none of the subjects reported joint pain at the time of testing. Surface electromyography (EMG) was used to record muscle activity.