2023 Undergraduate Research Showcase

Document Type

Student Presentation

Presentation Date

4-21-2023

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Tyler N. Brown

Abstract

Frontal plane knee biomechanics, in particular speed and magnitude of knee adduction motion, are implicated in knee osteoarthritis development. Although individuals are between 50% to 90% more likely to develop knee osteoarthritis after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACL-R), it is unknown if ACL-R individuals exhibit knee adduction biomechanics related to OA development. This study sought to quantify speed and magnitude of knee adduction for knee OA and ACL-R individuals. We hypothesize that OA will exhibit larger, faster knee adduction biomechanics than ACL-R, which will increase at great walk speed and over a challenging surface. Six individuals with ACL-R and 8 individuals with knee OA had knee adduction quantified as they walked 1.3 m/s and at a self-selected speed over a flat and an uneven surface. Peak of stance, and average and maximum velocity of knee adduction joint angle and moment between heel strike and peak of stance were submitted to repeated measures ANOVA to compare main and interaction effects between group, speed and surface. There was a walk speed by group interaction for peak knee adduction moment (p = 0.048). Walk speed impacted maximum knee adduction joint angle (p=0.004) and moment velocity (p=0.041), while surface impacted peak knee adduction joint angle (p=0.035) and maximum knee adduction joint moment velocity (p=0.007). In partial agreement with our hypothesis, speed and magnitude knee adduction biomechanics increased with walk speed and surface, but OA did not consistently exhibit larger knee adduction biomechanics than ACL-R.

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