The Patellofemoral Pain Functional Performance and Arthrogenic Muscle Inhibition Study

Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is one of the most frequently diagnosed conditions in patients with knee complaints.

Studies investigating the therapeutic effect on PFP revealed that the majority of patients with PFP were still suffering of knee pain after 5 to 8 years, despite initially received treatment and education, indicating that the current treatments fail to prevent the chronicity of symptoms. Considering that current treatment-strategies of patients with PFP seem to be unable to avoid the development of chronic symptoms, the question arises if the underlying factors of PFP are understood sufficiently.

In contrary to the current broad body of literature on weakness, potentially underlying factors which might influence or even lead to PFP, such arthrogenic muscle inhibition (AMI) or the break phenomenon remain understudied.

Pain in PFP has been proven to be linked to quadriceps strength deficit, gluteal strength deficits, knee stability, irregularities in the quadriceps torque curve, and functional performance. Bazett et al. (2011) described that pain "is more than a symptom and might play a role in the etiology or progression of PFP". Furthermore, pain seems to play a crucial role in AMI. However, the correlation between pain and AMI in patients with PFP has not been investigated currently.

No assessment in isolation can provide a full picture of the problem. The combination of AMI, the break phenomenon with a biomechanical analysis might enable the determination of the impact of inhibition and strength on biomechanical changes. In addition, it might provide an answer to whether AMI or weakness cause biomechanical alterations, which would help to optimise treatment approaches in PFP.