ArticleJournal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985)2014
Age-related greater Achilles tendon compliance is not associated with larger plantar flexor muscle fascicle strains in senior women.
Article in Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985), 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04033146 (Optimizing Ankle Exoskeleton Assistance for Walking Across the Life Span), which is not on this map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Optimizing Ankle Exoskeleton Assistance for Walking Across the Life Span
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationship Between Structure and Age in Healthy Achilles Tendons.Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society · 2025Article
- Reduced Achilles tendon stiffness in aging associates with higher metabolic cost of walking.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2024Article
- Structure and function of Achilles and patellar tendons following moderate slow resistance training in young and old men.European journal of applied physiology · 2024Article
- In Vivo Strain Patterns in the Achilles Tendon During Dynamic Activities: A Comprehensive Survey of the Literature.Sports medicine - open · 2023Review
- Understanding altered contractile properties in advanced age: insights from a systematic muscle modelling approach.Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology · 2023Article
- Differences in the cross-sectional area along the ankle tendons with both age and sex.Journal of anatomy · 2023Article
- Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of muscle contraction in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Influence of Spinal Movements Associated with Physical Evaluation on Muscle Mechanical Properties of the Lumbar Paraspinal in Subjects with Acute Low Back Pain.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Reduced Achilles Tendon Stiffness Disrupts Calf Muscle Neuromechanics in Elderly Gait.Gerontology · 2022Review
- The Associations between Rapid Strength Development and Muscle Stiffness in Older Population.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Resting Tendon Cross-Sectional Area Underestimates Biceps Brachii Tendon Stress: Importance of Measuring During a Contraction.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
- Contemporary image-based methods for measuring passive mechanical properties of skeletal muscles in vivo.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2019Review
- Morphometric and dynamic measurements of muscular fascia in healthy individuals using ultrasound imaging: a summary of the discrepancies and gaps in the current literature.Surgical and radiologic anatomy : SRA · 2018Review
- Relationship of changes in strain rate indices estimated from velocity-encoded MR imaging to loss of muscle force following disuse atrophy.Magnetic resonance in medicine · 2018Article
- Alterations in Leg Extensor Muscle-Tendon Unit Biomechanical Properties With Ageing and Mechanical Loading.Frontiers in physiology · 2018Review
- Quantitative ultrasound mapping of regional variations in shear wave speeds of the aging Achilles tendon.European radiology · 2017Article
- Mapping of spatial and temporal heterogeneity of plantar flexor muscle activity during isometric contraction: correlation of velocity-encoded MRI with EMG.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2015Article
- The effect of intramuscular fat on skeletal muscle mechanics: implications for the elderly and obese.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2015Article
- Middle-aged adults exhibit altered spatial variations in Achilles tendon wave speed.Physiological measurement · 2015Article
- Age-related differences in strain rate tensor of the medial gastrocnemius muscle during passive plantarflexion and active isometric contraction using velocity encoded MR imaging: potential index of lateral force transmission.Magnetic resonance in medicine · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that the age-associated decrease of tendon stiffness would necessitate greater muscle fascicle strains to produce similar levels of force during isometric contraction. Greater fascicle strains could force sarcomeres to operate in less advantageous regions of their force-length and force-velocity relationships, thus impairing the capacity to generate strong and explosive contractions. To test this hypothesis, sagittal-plane dynamic velocity-encoded phase-contrast magnetic resonance images of the gastrocnemius medialis (GM) muscle and Achilles tendon (AT) were acquired in six young (YW; 26.1 ± 2.3 yr) and six senior (SW; 76.7 ± 8.3 yr) women during submaximal isometric contraction (35% maximum voluntary isometric contraction) of the plantar flexor muscles. Multiple GM fascicle lengths were continuously determined by automatically tracking regions of interest coinciding with the end points of muscle fascicles evenly distributed along the muscle's proximo-distal length. AT stiffness and Young's modulus were measured as the slopes of the tendon's force-elongation and stress-strain curves, respectively. Despite significantly lower AT stiffness at older age (YW: 120.2 ± 52.3 N/mm vs. SW: 53.9 ± 44.4 N/mm, P = 0.040), contraction-induced changes in GM fascicle lengths were similar in both age groups at equal levels of absolute muscular force (4-5% fascicle shortening in both groups), and even significantly larger in YW (YW: 11-12% vs. SW: 6-8% fascicle shortening) at equal percentage of maximum voluntary contraction. These results suggest that factors other than AT stiffness, such as age-associated changes in muscle composition or fascicle slack, might serve as compensatory adaptations, limiting the degree of fascicle strains upon contraction.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.