Joint reaction and simulated muscle forces during squatting and walking in persons with hemophilia

Persons with hemophilia experience joint bleeding that can lead to debilitating arthropathy, most commonly seen in ankles, knees, and elbows. Arthropathy can hinder participation in daily and athletic activities. We explored how hemophilic arthropathy impacts movement patterns in walking and bilateral squatting tasks in persons with hemophilia compared to healthy controls.

Persons with hemophilia and healthy controls completed walking and squatting tasks while kinematic and kinetic motion capture data were collected. The Hemophilia Joint Health Score exam was performed to measure hemophiliac arthropathy. OpenSim was used to model muscle and joint reaction forces and calculate moments and angles. Peak values were compared using Cohen's d to estimate effect sizes of hemophilia on movement parameters.

Nine persons with hemophilia and eight age-matched controls were analyzed. Temporal-spatial metrics were similar between hemophilia and control groups in both tasks. In walking, persons with hemophilia had higher peak ankle dorsiflexion angles, vertical ground reaction force weight acceptance peaks, and hip extension and flexion moments compared to controls. In squatting, persons with hemophilia had lower knee extension moments, ankle joint reaction force, and knee extensor forces, but had higher hip extension moments.

Temporal-spatial metric similarity between hemophilia and controls suggests that kinetic and kinematic analyses are needed to identify movement pattern differences. These data identify potential compensatory strategies at the hip that may be used by persons with hemophilia to mitigate impact on the knee and ankle. Future work will confirm these data in a larger sample size and be used to develop physical therapy strategies.