Abstract
PURPOSE Our purpose was to compare knee joint moments and forces between older adults with knee osteoarthritis and an age, gender, and mass matched healthy cohort. METHODS This study was designed to provide preliminary data that would identify trends to justify further investigation. The subjects for this investigation were 10 older adults (74.1± 1.49 yrs) with tibiofemoral and/or patellofemoral radiographic evidence and pain (ranged from mild to severe) and disability attributed to knee OA, and 10 age (73.0± 1.61 yrs), gender (9 female, 1 male, and mass(OA,65.1± 2.61 kg; H, 58.3± 2.74 kg) matched healthy (H) adults. Three dimensional gait analysis was used to calculate peak knee joint forces and moments. EMG data were obtained to verify our interpretation of the knee joint moment data. An analysis of covariance was used to adjust for differences in walking velocity between the groups (OA: 109.7 ±3.59 cm/s; H: 129.6± 8.42 cm/s). RESULTS The OA group had between 7% and 8% greater knee joint compressive (OA: 3.67± 0.24 BW; H: 3.40± 0.24 BW) and shear (OA: 0.47± 0.04 BW; H:0.44± 0.04 BW) forces, and 33% higher knee extension moments (OA:0.32± 0.07 Nm/kg; H: 0.24± 0.07Nm/kg) and 24% lower knee internal abduction (OA:0.25 ± 0.06Nm/kg; H:0.33± 0.06 Nm/kg) moments than the H group. CONCLUSION The trends in our data provide insight that may prove significant in a subsequent study using a larger sample size. Specifically, the chronic application of the slightly larger loads found in the OA group may increase cartilage degradation and present a possible pathway to knee OA. The 24% greater internal abduction moment in the H group is in contrast to the greater internal abduction moment that several authors have found differentiates patients with severe medial compartment knee OA from healthy cohorts. Hence, it appears the greater internal abduction moment may pertain only to patients with severe medial compartment knee OA.
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