Cargando…

Quadriceps force generation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and asymptomatic participants during patellar tendon reflex reactions: an exploratory cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: It has been postulated that muscle contraction is slower in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee than asymptomatic individuals, a factor that could theoretically impair joint protection mechanisms. This study investigated whether patients with osteoarthritis of the knee took longer t...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dixon, John, Howe, Tracey E
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2005
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1232853/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16137326
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-6-46
_version_ 1782124989321838592
author Dixon, John
Howe, Tracey E
author_facet Dixon, John
Howe, Tracey E
author_sort Dixon, John
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: It has been postulated that muscle contraction is slower in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee than asymptomatic individuals, a factor that could theoretically impair joint protection mechanisms. This study investigated whether patients with osteoarthritis of the knee took longer than asymptomatic participants to generate force during reflex quadriceps muscle contraction. This was an exploratory study to inform sample size for future studies. METHODS: An exploratory observational cross sectional study was carried out. Two subject groups were tested, asymptomatic participants (n = 17), mean (SD) 56.7 (8.6) years, and patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, diagnosed by an orthopaedic surgeon, (n = 16), age 65.9 (7.8) years. Patellar tendon reflex responses were elicited from participants and measured with a load cell. Force latency, contraction time, and force of the reflex response were determined from digitally stored data. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for the between group comparisons in these variables. Bland and Altman within-subject standard deviation values were calculated to evaluate the measurement error or precision of force latency and contraction time. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between the groups for force latency (p = 0.47), contraction time (p = 0.91), or force (p = 0.72). The two standard deviation measurement error values for force latency were 27.9 ms for asymptomatic participants and 16.4 ms for OA knee patients. For contraction time, these values were 29.3 ms for asymptomatic participants and 28.1 ms for OA knee patients. Post hoc calculations revealed that the study was adequately powered (80%) to detect a difference between the groups of 30 ms in force latency. However it was inadequately powered (59%) to detect this same difference in contraction time, and 28 participants would be required in each group to reach 80% power. CONCLUSION: Patients with osteoarthritis of the knee do not appear to have compromised temporal parameters or magnitude of force generation during patellar tendon reflex reactions when compared to a group of asymptomatic participants. However, these results suggest that larger studies are carried out to investigate this area further.
format Text
id pubmed-1232853
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2005
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-12328532005-09-24 Quadriceps force generation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and asymptomatic participants during patellar tendon reflex reactions: an exploratory cross-sectional study Dixon, John Howe, Tracey E BMC Musculoskelet Disord Research Article BACKGROUND: It has been postulated that muscle contraction is slower in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee than asymptomatic individuals, a factor that could theoretically impair joint protection mechanisms. This study investigated whether patients with osteoarthritis of the knee took longer than asymptomatic participants to generate force during reflex quadriceps muscle contraction. This was an exploratory study to inform sample size for future studies. METHODS: An exploratory observational cross sectional study was carried out. Two subject groups were tested, asymptomatic participants (n = 17), mean (SD) 56.7 (8.6) years, and patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, diagnosed by an orthopaedic surgeon, (n = 16), age 65.9 (7.8) years. Patellar tendon reflex responses were elicited from participants and measured with a load cell. Force latency, contraction time, and force of the reflex response were determined from digitally stored data. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for the between group comparisons in these variables. Bland and Altman within-subject standard deviation values were calculated to evaluate the measurement error or precision of force latency and contraction time. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between the groups for force latency (p = 0.47), contraction time (p = 0.91), or force (p = 0.72). The two standard deviation measurement error values for force latency were 27.9 ms for asymptomatic participants and 16.4 ms for OA knee patients. For contraction time, these values were 29.3 ms for asymptomatic participants and 28.1 ms for OA knee patients. Post hoc calculations revealed that the study was adequately powered (80%) to detect a difference between the groups of 30 ms in force latency. However it was inadequately powered (59%) to detect this same difference in contraction time, and 28 participants would be required in each group to reach 80% power. CONCLUSION: Patients with osteoarthritis of the knee do not appear to have compromised temporal parameters or magnitude of force generation during patellar tendon reflex reactions when compared to a group of asymptomatic participants. However, these results suggest that larger studies are carried out to investigate this area further. BioMed Central 2005-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC1232853/ /pubmed/16137326 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-6-46 Text en Copyright © 2005 Dixon and Howe; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Dixon, John
Howe, Tracey E
Quadriceps force generation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and asymptomatic participants during patellar tendon reflex reactions: an exploratory cross-sectional study
title Quadriceps force generation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and asymptomatic participants during patellar tendon reflex reactions: an exploratory cross-sectional study
title_full Quadriceps force generation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and asymptomatic participants during patellar tendon reflex reactions: an exploratory cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Quadriceps force generation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and asymptomatic participants during patellar tendon reflex reactions: an exploratory cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Quadriceps force generation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and asymptomatic participants during patellar tendon reflex reactions: an exploratory cross-sectional study
title_short Quadriceps force generation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and asymptomatic participants during patellar tendon reflex reactions: an exploratory cross-sectional study
title_sort quadriceps force generation in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and asymptomatic participants during patellar tendon reflex reactions: an exploratory cross-sectional study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1232853/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16137326
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-6-46
work_keys_str_mv AT dixonjohn quadricepsforcegenerationinpatientswithosteoarthritisofthekneeandasymptomaticparticipantsduringpatellartendonreflexreactionsanexploratorycrosssectionalstudy
AT howetraceye quadricepsforcegenerationinpatientswithosteoarthritisofthekneeandasymptomaticparticipantsduringpatellartendonreflexreactionsanexploratorycrosssectionalstudy