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Background and Objective: There has been considerable debate regarding the best treatment of the Achilles tendon rupture. One of the nonoperative treatment method for Achilles tendon rupture is using the functional brace. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the functional brace with/without patellar tendon bearing on treatment of patients with Achilles tendon rupture. Materials and Methods: In this semi expremental study, 17 patients with Achilles tendon rupture were recruited and randomly allocated into 2 groups: functional brace with patellar tendon bearing and functional brace without patellar tendon bearing. Pain, plantar and dorsi flexion strength and the required time for progressively increased dorsi flexion position in orthoses to reach the neutral position were measured. Data analyzed with SPSS-13, independent t-test and Smironov-Kolomogrov. Results: Three patients were excluded during follow up and finally this study was done on 14 patients. The difference of the pain intensity and the plantar and dorsi flexion, in each group, before and after the intervention was significant (P<0.05), but the difference between two groups after intervention in all variables was not significant. Conclusion: This study showed that both brace with/without patellar tendon bearing are effective on improvement of pain and the plantar flexion and dorsi flexion strength and also are effective in required time to reach the neutral position.

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Background and Objective: The reduction of shoe heel height can increase abdominal muscles activity. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of low shoe heel height on the trunk muscle activity in young healthy females. Materials and Methods: In this quasi- experimental (Pre-post ) study, 48 healthy females were evaluated at University of social welfare and rehabilitation at 2009-2010. Females were selected in a non probability sampling manner and divided randomly into two groups. Subjects in the first group (12 females) were used low heel height shoes(less than 3.4 cm) for six months. The second group (12 female) was used standard heel shoes height (3.5-5 cm) for six months. After the end of the first step of study, females in first group were used standard heel shoes height (3.5-5 cm) for six months. The Kinsiologic Electromyography instrument was used to test the Electromyography magnitude of rectus abdominal and external oblique activity. Data was analyzed with Paired and independent T student and Kolmogorrov-Smirnov tests. Results: Muscle activity in first and second groups at external oblique was 9.72±3.15 μν and 7.87±2.47 μν and at rectus abdominal was 11.60±3.58 μν and 9.81±3.46 μν respectively. Muscle activity before and after using standard shoe heel height was significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: It seems that using lower heel shoes height increase the trunk muscle activity.