O uso de testes clínicos para predizer resultados biomecânicos em atletas de futsal

Abstract

In sports involving jump and landing, soft tissues injuries are the most prevalent, with the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) being the most affected in the lower extremity. The identification of risk factors for this injury is of great importance in the sports environment, aiming to develop protocols that help prevent these injuries. However, the gold standard method for identifying potential risk factors for these injuries involves a specialized, high-cost environment that is not always accessible to sports clubs. In the other hand, clinical tests are a quick, cheap, and easy-to-apply option, which has been highly recognized in terms of validity and replicability for detecting risk factors for injuries. However, it remains unclear whether the results found in these clinical tests correspond to biomechanical parameters considered as indicatives of injury risk. Thus, in this dissertation, we determine the ability of clinical tests to predict biomechanical parameters associated with ACL injury during a bilateral and unilateral landing task. The study included 26 male professional futsal athletes, who completed a battery of clinical tests followed by a 3D motion analysis considering kinematics and kinetics outcomes. Associations between clinical tests and biomechanical variables were analyzed. Our main findings support the use of clinical tests as predictors of important biomechanical variables for injury risk. Knee and hip isometric strength proved to be strong predictors of biomechanical outcomes in the motion analysis evaluation. In addition, the strongest prediction models showed combinations of more than one clinical test, especially those involving tests of isometric strength and joint mobility. Similar results of predictions were found for bilateral and unilateral jumps. We conclude that specific combinations of clinical tests can better predict biomechanical variables in motion analysis related to identification of ACL injury risk factors. We strongly suggest using strength tests for muscles producing motion in both knee and hip joints. Our results provide directions for a clinical evaluation with the potential to assist in clinical decision-making. The prediction equations generated requires further validation.