Effect of aging on tibiofemoral cartilage and meniscal stiffness
Abstract
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent degenerative cartilage disease characterized by degradation and loss of articular cartilage. Current OA diagnosis methods are ineffective at detecting and monitoring early signs of degeneration in the joint. Changes in mechanical properties of the tissue such as stiffness, or ability to resist compressive load, could present a more sensitive measure for the detection of early OA. This study has developed a novel methodology for the in-vivo measurement of tibiofemoral cartilage and meniscal stiffness using dual fluoroscopy (DF) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. This study further aimed to advance understanding of changes in cartilage and meniscal stiffness with normal aging, as age is generally believed to be a leading risk factor for OA. Two groups of five normal males (20-30 and 50-60 years of age) were tested to determine median cartilage and meniscal stiffness over a 5-minute static loading trial. Cartilage and meniscal stiffness was found to significantly increase by 12.51 N/mm (p=0.009) with age. The 20-30 year old group median was 3.39 N/mm (interquartile range (IQR)=2.01-7.29 N/mm) while the 50-60 year old group median was 15.90 N/mm (IQR=11.35-21.17 N/mm). This study contributes toward advancement of early OA clinical diagnostics by demonstrating the presence of significant changes in cartilage and meniscal stiffness with normal aging.
Description
Keywords
Engineering--Biomedical
Citation
Ritchie, B. (2017). Effect of aging on tibiofemoral cartilage and meniscal stiffness (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25790