Relationship Between The Quadriceps Muscle Stiffness And Patellar Alignment For Healthy People

Completed

• Conditions: Patellofemoral Maltracking

• Registration Number: NCT04982679
• Lead Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Brief Summary

Patellofemoral pain is a common disease, and it often couples with patellar malalignment. Previously, imbalance of the different quadriceps muscle heads was believed to be a causative factor of patellar malignment. However, findings from electromyography studies on quadriceps activities and patellar alignment in the last two decades were inconsistent. In order to better understand the relationship between quadriceps muscle imbalance and patellar malalignment, shear wave elastography (SWE), which can measure the passive and active muscle stiffness, may shed some new lights to this area. This study aims to examine whether the quadriceps muscle stiffness can predict the patellar position. The healthy young adult will be recruited in this study. Active and passive quadriceps muscle stiffness will be measured with the SWE in different conditions and the result will be correlated with the patellar position measured with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Also, electromyography (EMG) activity will be measured during the active stiffness measurement so as to establish the level of agreement between the EMG and SWE data. Linear regression will be used to calculate the relationship between different factors. The total number of subjects needed will be 55 by setting an effect size of 0.15 with two predictors, 80% power, and α at 0.05 in the linear regression.

This project will be conducted at PolyU campus and an MRI clinic in Hong Kong. Hopefully, it could be started in July 2021 and will last for 1 year.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2021-07
• Study First Submitted: 2021-07-20
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-07-20
• Study First Posted: 2021-07-29
• Study Start: 2021-11-26
• Primary Completion: 2022-02-09
• Study Completion: 2022-02-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-03-15
• Last Update Posted: 2022-03-16

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 59

Inclusion Criteria

• Healthy and in the range between 18 and 45 years.

Exclusion Criteria

• Knee pain in the last 3 months;
• Previous history of knee surgery;
• People with contraindications to having MRI scanning.

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Muscle stiffness measured by ultragraph using shear wave elastography	Within 1 hour	Raw data of vastus lateralis, rectus femoris and vastus medialis obliquus shear modulus
Patellofemoral Joint Alignment measured by MRI scanning	Within 1 hour	Patellar displacement, patellar Alta/Baja and patellar tilt angle

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Muscle activity measured by electromyography	Within 1 hour	EMG data of vastus lateralis, rectus femoris and vastus medialis obliquus
Muscle strength	Within 0.5 hour	Maximum isometric knee extensor muscle strength at specific joint angle (30 degrees and 60 degrees knee flexion)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Hong Kong Polytechnic University; 🇭🇰 Hung Hom, Hong Kong