The results of this study concur with previous investigations of various stretching interventions for the ankles in other neurological

conditions such as spinal cord injury (Ben et al 2005, Harvey et al 2000, Harvey et al 2009) and traumatic brain injury (Moseley 1997). We Selleck Lumacaftor did, however, find larger improvements in ankle dorsiflexion range than the previous two studies of pre-fabricated night splints in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (Redmond 2004, Refshauge et al 2006). There may be a number of reasons for this. We used a different type of intervention from the previous studies. In this study the night casts were custom made for each participant with their ankle positioned in maximal passive dorsiflexion and then replaced at 2 weeks to further increase the stretch. The casts could not be adjusted and there was no opportunity to reduce the amount of stretch given, as in previous studies. While the previous studies reported similar compliance with prefabricated night splints, these detached during the night in some participants. As we did not encounter this problem, our study participants may have received a stretch of Selleck AZD5363 greater intensity and duration. We anticipated that increases

in ankle dorsiflexion range might translate to improvements in activity, since restricted ankle dorsiflexion flexibility is a significant independent predictor of activity limitations in children with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (Burns et al 2009a). However, study participants may not have gained enough ankle dorsiflexion range to significantly affect function. It is also possible

that some of the outcome measures used to assess motor function were lacking in sensitivity and responsiveness to change for the less affected children and young adults. For example, it is likely that the balance tasks were not challenging enough considering the 30 participants obtained an average balance Non-specific serine/threonine protein kinase time of 25 s at baseline and 8 children achieved the 30 s ceiling for all three balance tasks providing little or no room for improvement. A 1 min ceiling, or more challenging balance and motor tasks might have been more sensitive to change and yielded different results. This should be considered in the future when selecting functional outcome measures for children and young adults with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, especially for those with less severe Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease phenotypes. The primary outcome in this study was ankle dorsiflexion range which, after much consideration, was assessed using the weightbearing lunge test. This method was selected as it is the most reliable, feasible and widely published clinical method for quantifying ankle dorsiflexion range in children. As in previous studies, we did not intend to measure underlying tissue mechanics or passive properties of associated soft tissues, which would have necessitated the use of a torque-controlled device (Harvey et al 2003).