Rockhampton students in netball study
Published on 21 August, 2003
A world-first study involving 16 Rockhampton students is trying to identify whether hormone fluctuations in young women place them at greater risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture, one of Australia’s most costly and common sports injuries.
Visiting German medical student Elisabeth Eiling, of Kiel University, is undertaking the study under the supervision of CQU School of Health and Human Performance biomechanics lecturer Adam Bryant and Rockhampton orthopaedic surgeon Associate Professor Dr. Erik Hohmann.
The study includes 10 female A-level netball players and six male students, aged between 15 and 19 years, from The Cathedral College at Rockhampton.
The male students make up the control group in the study.
“This is a very exciting study and we haven’t analysed the results yet so I cannot give an idea of the trend thus far, but Elisabeth leaves in six weeks so we expect to have the results by then,’’ he said.
Mr Bryant said the study aimed at delineating at which stages of the menstrual cycle there is an increased risk of injuring the ACL.
“We are looking at the fluctuations of the hormones oestrogen, progesterone and relaxin and their effects on the knee joint,” he said.
“We are bringing the test subjects in during different times of their cycle and look at the movement in the knee joint and at how stiff their muscles are.” He said that for each testing session the participants were required to do different biomechanical tests in order to determine the stiffness and laxity of their knee, as well as being filmed doing netball landings on a force plate to create movement data on the biomechanics of landings.
“We are looking at how those parameters change as a factor of hormone fluctuations and hopefully at the end of the study we will be able to tell them the risks of playing netball at certain stages of their cycle,’’ he said.
Mr Bryant said the results would transfer across a range of sports that require participants to stop suddenly, including basketball, soccer and squash.
“It is a ground-breaking study with plenty of potential to reduce the costs associated with anterior cruciate ligament damage in Australia,’’ he said.