Evaluation of Different Intraarticular Injection Therapies with Gait Analysis in a Rat Osteoarthritis Model

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that causes serious damage to joints, especially in elderly patients. The aim of study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of intraarticular therapies that are currently used or recently popularized in the treatment of OA. Design: The baseline values were determined by walking the rats on the CatWalk system. Afterwards, a monosodium iodoacetate (MIA)-induced knee OA model was created with intraarticular MIA, and the rats were walked again on the CatWalk system and post-OA values were recorded. At this stage, the rats were divided into 4 groups, and intraarticular astaxanthin, intraarticular corticosteroid, intraarticular hyaluronic acid, and intraarticular astaxanthin + hyaluronic acid were applied to the groups, respectively. The rats were walked once more and posttreatment values were obtained. Nine different dynamic gait parameters were used in the comparison. Results: Significant changes were measured in 6 of the 9 dynamic gait parameters after the MIA-induced knee OA model. While the best improvement was observed in run duration ( P = 0.0022), stride length ( P < 0.0001), and swing speed ( P = 0.0355) in the astaxanthin group, the results closest to basal values in paw print length ( P < 0.0001), paw print width ( P = 0.0101), and paw print area ( P = 0.0277) were seen in the astaxanthin + hyaluronic acid group. Conclusion: Astaxanthin gave better outcomes than corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid in both dynamic gait parameters and histological examinations. Intraarticular astaxanthin therapy can be a good alternative to corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid currently used in intraarticular therapy to treat OA.

Anti-gravity treadmill rehabilitation improves gait and muscle atrophy in patients with surgically treated ankle and tibial plateau fractures after one year: A randomised clinical trial

Objective: To compare the one-year postoperative outcomes of anti-gravity treadmill rehabilitation with those of standard rehabilitation in patients with ankle or tibial plateau fractures. Design: An open-label prospective randomised study. Setting: Three trauma centres. Subjects: Patients were randomised into the intervention (anti-gravity treadmill) or control (standard protocol) rehabilitation group. Main measures: The primary endpoint was changes in the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score for ankle fractures and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for tibial plateau fractures from baseline to 12 months after operation. Secondary endpoints were the subscores of these scores, muscle atrophy (leg circumference at 20 cm above and 10 cm below the knee joint) and the Dynamic Gait Index. Results: Initially, 73 patients (37 vs 36) underwent randomisation. After 12 months, 29 patients in the intervention group and 24 patients in the control group could be analysed. No significant difference was noted in the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (80.8 ± 18.4 and 78.4 ± 21.1) and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (84.8 ± 15.2 and 81.7 ± 17.0). The change in the Dynamic Gait Index from 12 weeks to 12 months differed significantly between the groups ( P = 0.04). Patients with tibial plateau fractures had a 3 cm wider thigh circumference in the intervention group than those in the control group (95% confidence interval: −0.2 to 6.3 cm, P = 0.08). Conclusion: One year after surgery, patients who had undergone anti-gravity treadmill rehabilitation showed better gait than patients in the control group, and those with tibial plateau fractures had less muscle atrophy.

The Effect of Simulated Leg-Length Discrepancy on the Dynamic Parameters of the Feet during Gait—Cross-Sectional Research

Background: The effect of Leg-Length Discrepancy (LLD) on dynamic gait parameters has been extensively discussed. Podobarography is the study of foot-to-ground pressure distribution. It has been used to test plantar footprint deviations that could reveal pathology. Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine the effects of simulated LLD on dynamic gait parameters measured with a pressure platform in healthy subjects. Methods: Thirty-seven healthy subjects participated in observational cross-sectional research. A procedure was performed to capture the dynamic parameters of each participant under five different simulated LLD conditions. Support time, mean pressure, and peak pressure measures were registered on three trials for each foot and LLD level per session. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test for repeated measures was performed to check for differences between the different simulated LLD levels. Results: The stance time of the short leg had no significant changes. The stance time of the long leg increased by 3.51% (p < 0.001), mean pressure of the short leg increased by 1.23% (p = 0.005), and decreased by 5.89% in the long leg (p < 0.001). Peak pressure of the short leg decreased by 2.58% (p = 0.031) and the long leg decreased by 12.11% (p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that increasing LLD causes an asymmetrical foot-loading pattern, with decreased mean and peak pressure on the longer limb, and consequently an overload on the short side. Furthermore, an increasing LLD causes increased stance time on the long leg.

Intrarater and Interrater Reliability of Dynamic Gait Index in Post Stroke Patients With Eye Movement Disorders

The authors have requested that this preprint be withdrawn due to erroneous posting.