Arch volume：a new method for medial longitudinal arch measurement.

BACKGROUND:As a flexible and elastic structure, the dynamic morphometry of medial longitudinal arch remains to be an unresolved Issue for clinic. Here we introduce a new measurement named arch volume to describe the morphological changes of the medial longitudinal arch during weight-bearing and compare with present method for measuring MLA. METHODS:64 healthy participants were enrolled. And the dynamic arch morphology was measured under four weight bearing status with navicular height, arch area and arch volume, respectively. RESULTS:With the increase of weight loading, the flattening or slightly deformation of medial longitudinal arch was observed by all method (p<0.05). However, as a 3D indicator, arch volume not only showed higher sensitivity than other method, but also provide visualization of MLA during loading changing. CONCLUSIONS:Compared with navicular height and arch area, arch volume has a significant advantage in describing arch morphological changes under different weight bearing status.