Abstract
The muscles and tendons in the forearm and hand of a young man, amputated after an accident, have been weighed and measured. The physiological cross-sectional areas of those muscles that had long tendons were 35 +/- 9 (mean and standard deviation) times the cross-sectional areas of the tendons. The mean is very close to the optimum calculated from the theory of Ker, Alexander & Bennett (1988). It implies that the tendons experience stresses of about 11 MPa and strains of about 1.3%, when the muscles exert their maximum isometric forces. Very much larger forces would be needed to break the tendons.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Brand P. W., Beach R. B., Thompson D. E. Relative tension and potential excursion of muscles in the forearm and hand. J Hand Surg Am. 1981 May;6(3):209–219. doi: 10.1016/s0363-5023(81)80072-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Brown T. I., Rack P. M., Ross H. F. Forces generated at the thumb interphalangeal joint during imposed sinusoidal movements. J Physiol. 1982 Nov;332:69–85. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1982.sp014401. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Friederich J. A., Brand R. A. Muscle fiber architecture in the human lower limb. J Biomech. 1990;23(1):91–95. doi: 10.1016/0021-9290(90)90373-b. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ker R. F., Bennett M. B., Bibby S. R., Kester R. C., Alexander R. M. The spring in the arch of the human foot. Nature. 1987 Jan 8;325(7000):147–149. doi: 10.1038/325147a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ker R. F. Dynamic tensile properties of the plantaris tendon of sheep (Ovis aries). J Exp Biol. 1981 Aug;93:283–302. doi: 10.1242/jeb.93.1.283. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rack P. M., Ross H. F. The tendon of flexor pollicis longus: its effects on the muscular control of force and position at the human thumb. J Physiol. 1984 Jun;351:99–110. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1984.sp015235. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]