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Medial meniscal damage corresponds to decreased proprioceptive accuracy

By Jordana Bieze Foster

Severity of meniscal abnormality in patients with knee OA is significantly associated with severity of proprioceptive impairment, according to research from the Netherlands presented at the 2013 World Congress on Osteoarthritis.

Investigators from the Amsterdam Rehabilitation Research Centre Reade used 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging to assess meniscal pathology in 105 patients with knee OA. Patients with medial meniscal abnormalities in multiple regions had poorer proprioception than those with meniscal abnormalities in fewer regions. Proprioceptive accuracy ranged from 1.83° in patients with no abnormalities to 3.2° in those with abnormalities in three regions. Similarly, extent of meniscal abnormality was also significantly associated with proprioceptive impairment.

“This study highlights the importance of meniscal abnormality in understanding the decreased proprioceptive accuracy in people with knee OA,” said Martin van der Esch, PT, PhD, a senior researcher and epidemiologist at the center, who presented the findings. “The data are quite clear that there is a strong association between these variables and osteoarthritis.”

Source:

Van der Esch M, Knoop J, Hunter D, Dekker J. The association between reduced knee joint proprioception and medial meniscus abnormalities using MRI in knee osteoarthritis: Results from the Amsterdam Osteoarthritis Cohort. Presented at the 2013 World Congress on Osteoarthritis, Philadelphia, April 2013.

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