Effects of Lower Limb Muscle Activities to Osteoarthritic Knees

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA), an acute knee ailment and triggered by the impairment of articular cartilage at the end of anatomical edifices around to knee joint. In the present paper surface electromyography (EMG) technique has been imposed to determine and analysis of major lower limb skeletal muscles activities related to knee kinematics. Vastus lateralis (VL), rectus femoris (RF), vastus medialis (VM), and medial head of gastrocnemius (MHGM) are the main lower limb muscles for knee flexion and extension. Thirty-two healthy and ten OA patients were selected to examine their lower limb muscles activities. The experiment results have strongly provided the correlation of lower limb muscles to knee movements as well as the effect of muscle damage due to the increasing of age. As VL, RF, VM, MHGM muscles are major concerned in knee flexor-extensor motions, the kinematic relations of these four lower limb muscles in aging were experimentally compared and documented.