Knee adduction moment is correlated with the increase in medial meniscus extrusion by dynamic ultrasound in knee osteoarthritis.

Background: An increase in medial meniscus extrusion (MME) due to abnormal biomechanical stress leads to knee osteoarthritis (OA) progression. MME evaluation during walking is a key method of detecting dynamic changes in the meniscus, and in combination with motion analysis, can provide a deeper understanding of the mechanisms involved in the increase of MME.

Objective: To validate the feasibility of MME dynamic evaluation in combination with a motion analysis system based on the correlation between the increase in MME and biomechanical factors.

Methods: Twenty-three knees from 23 patients with mild to moderate knee OA were analysed in this study. The medial meniscus during walking was evaluated by ultrasound. The increase in MME was calculated as the difference between the minimum and maximum MME during walking. A three-dimensional motion analysis system was synchronised with the ultrasound and then, biomechanical factors such as knee moment and ground reaction force were evaluated.

Results: The wave patterns of the mediolateral and vertical components of ground reaction forces and knee adduction moment were similar to those in the MME based on a high cross-correlation coefficient (>0.8). The increase in MME was significantly correlated with the peak value of the knee adduction moment (r = 0.54, P = 0.0073) but not with the mediolateral and vertical components of the ground reaction force.

Conclusion: The findings show that knee adduction moment is correlated with an increase in MME during walking and indicates the validity and feasibility of the dynamic evaluation of MME in combination with a motion analysis system.