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BACKGROUND: Grip strength is widely accepted as an indicator of maximum hand strength and contraction of active muscles of the hand and forearm. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the effects of forearm posture (pronation, supination and neutral) and anthropometric variation on MVC grip strength and grip endurance time in young university adults. METHODS: Fifty healthy, right-handed men volunteered to participate in this study. The experiment was characterized by measuring MVC grip strength and endurance time of 50% MVC randomly in three different postures (supine, pronation and neutral). Performance was assessed in terms of dependent variables: MVC grip strength and grip endurance time. RESULTS: MANCOVA results showed no significant effect of posture on MVC grip strength (p = 0:333) and grip endurance time (p = 0:772). There was a significant effect of age (p = 0.044), height (p = 0.012) and forearm length (p = 0.039) on the grip endurance time in supine position. However, palm circumference had a significant effect on MVC grip strength (p = 0.036) in pronation posture only. The pronation forearm posture produces 7.4% more grip strength than a supine posture. In addition, the grip endurance time was improved in the supine position, compared to the neutral and pronation forearm posture. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the MVC grip strength is affected by the weight and palm circumference. In addition, palm circumference was the most influential factor affecting grip strength. Thus, anthropometric and posture-specific grip strength data are essential for clinical and industrial applications. The results can be used to prepare guidelines for rehabilitation, health care, sport and medicine.

The aim of the study was to test the use of a new device for anthropometric acquisition in sports applications. In particular, we used an electrogoniometer (FARO Arm) to analyze the upper extremities in 45 elderly swimmers during the 10th World Masters Championships. Conventional anthropometric parameters were measured by a conventional method (anthropometric) and also by the new method. In order to illustrate the potentiality of the new method, we also introduced a new parameter to describe the arm model in swimmers, the carrying angle.

A detailed analysis of the features and potentiality of the new method is reported in the paper. The ANOVA test did not show significant differences between the main anthropometric measurements obtained with the two methods. We concluded that the use of the FARO Arm device is effective for anthropometric measurements in sports applications, as it can reproduce conventional measurements accurately and also estimate new parameters.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between anthropometric hand/wrist measurements and outcomes following static wrist splintage in patients with mild-to-moderate carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).

Methods: Thirty nine patients with mild-to-moderate CTS were enrolled in this study. Anthropometric measurements of hand and wrist including wrist width, wrist depth, palm length, hand length, wrist ratio (wrist depth/wrist width) and wrist/palm ratio (wrist depth/palm length) were recorded as well as body mass index and ultrasonographic cross sectional area of median nerve. Patients were treated with static wrist splints and evaluated at 2^nd, 4^th and 12^th weeks with Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire, median nerve nerve conduction studies, Visual Analog Scale for pain and Likert Scale for numbness.

Results: Following treatment with a static wrist splint, the wrist ratio was correlated significantly with improvements in Boston Functional Status Scale at the second and forth weeks (r = −0.354, p = 0.027 and r = −0.320, p = 0.050 respectively) and Visual Analog Scale at the forth and 12^th weeks (r = −0.352, p = 0.030 and r = −0.360, p = 0.029 respectively).

Conclusions: Splinting provides symptomatic improvement in mild-to-moderate CTS and this study suggests that the wrist anthropometric measurements may influence treatment outcomes.