The Result of Mid-High-Heeled Footwear on Young Adult Women
artifact and fitting a cylinder to the resulting point cloud . The result of a measurement of a subject ’ s back was a point cloud consisting of approximately 100 thousand points , depending on the subject body size . The surface of the back was measured from a single direction , and the measurement was automatically aligned concerning the gravity vector using the plumb line calibration .
2.4 . Application of Fiducial Markers
A set of anthropometric landmarks of the dorsum and shoulders was palpated on the surface of the back of a subject . A plain white , adhesive circular marker of 10 mm in diameter was attached to the skin in each palpated landmark location . The landmarks were :
u C7 — the spinous process of the vertebra prominens ,
u LAX / RAX — left and right axilla ,
u LSC / RSC — the inferior angle of the left and right scapula ,
u ThK — the apex of thoracic kyphosis ,
u ThK-LL — point of transition from thoracic kyphosis to lumbar lordosis ,
u LL — the apex of lumbar lordosis , LVD / RVD — left and right Venus dimple , u IF — top of the intergluteal cleft .
The complete map of anthropometric points used in the experiment is presented in Figure 2 . The marker at the transition from the thoracic kyphosis to the lumbar lordosis curve , used to calculate the thoracic kyphosis angle and lumbar lordosis angle , was chosen by the examiners based on their expert anatomical knowledge . The twelfth palpated rib was used to establish the position of the marker . A little more demanding to assess were the actual inflection point of the spinal curve and the kyphosis and lordosis angles . Points were found as the most prominent anthropometric point seen or palpated on the thoracic kyphosis and the deepest depression point of the lumbar lordosis . The correspondence of sagittal curvatures obtained on the point cloud and their radiograph equivalents could be considered best . However , these angles should be treated merely as values , generally describing the thoracic and lumbar curves of the spine .
2.5 . Barefoot Measurements
Barefoot measurements were performed at the beginning of every subject . The measurement was repeated three times to test the repeatability of the method . For each repetitive measurement , the subject would step out of the measurement volume , remain there for approximately 1 min doing simple movements , and then step back in .
2.6 . High-Heeled Measurements
For the high-heel measurement , instead of regular high-heeled shoes , wooden wedges with an angle of incidence of 30 degrees were used ( Figure 3 ). The students were instructed to put the metatarsal heads on the floor and the rest of the foot on the wedge , to obtain an effect analogous to that of a mid-height highheel shoe .
The reasons for choosing the wedges over regular high-heeled shoes were multiple . Firstly , the wedge provides a constant angle of inclination of the foot and , as a result , a more homogeneous reaction of the body in all the subjects . Different stability characteristics of the shoes and degree of adaptation to the chosen pair of shoes could be ruled out . The angle of incidence for the
Current Pedorthics | January-February 2022 15