Effects of taping on knee joint position sense of female athletes across the menstrual cycle

 Introduction: The rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tearing is more common in female athletes and one of thereasons is the effect of sex hormones. It was illustrated that knee joint position sense (JPS) isaltered across the menstrual cycle and its lowest level is at menses. Therefore, it’s important to find a method to reduce injury risk at menses. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of taping as a stimulator of skin, on the knee JPS in healthy female athletes across the menstrual cycle with different levels of estrogen and progesterone.  Materials and Methods: In this semi-experimental study, 16 healthy female athletes with regular menstrual cycle voluntarily participated. Knee JPS was measured at 3 menstrual cycle phases, before and after patellataping. JPS was evaluated by reproduction of the target angle (30° flexion) in standing position, from full extension. Serum estrogen and progesterone levels were collected in these 3 phases. Knee angles were measured by using a system comprised of skin markers, digital photography, and autoCAD software. Absolute error was considered as a dependent variable. Results: There was a significant difference between the knee JPS in 3 phases of measurement before taping (P=0.025), while no significant difference was found between knee JPS in 3 phases after taping (P=0.965).  Conclusion: Findings of this study suggest that healthy female athletes have different levels of knee JPS across a menstrual cycle and its accuracy decreasesat menses. This differencecan be reduced by skin stimulatingmethods, such as taping. Therefore, kinesio taping would improve the knee JPSdeficiency at menses.