Measuring static and dynamic lower limb alignment in patients with advanced knee osteoarthritis using markerless...

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Orthopedics
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Lower limb malalignment is a key factor in knee osteoarthritis (OA) progression.
• Markerless motion capture offers a non-invasive method to assess lower limb alignment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify static and dynamic lower limb alignment in patients with advanced medial and lateral knee OA.
• To explore sex differences in lower limb alignment during static and dynamic tasks.
• To investigate the association between static and dynamic knee adduction angles.

Main Methods:

• Ninety-two patients with advanced knee OA underwent markerless motion capture (Theia3D) during quiet standing and gait tasks.
• Two-way ANOVA and unpaired t-tests were used to analyze sex and group differences.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in knee adduction angle were observed between medial and lateral knee OA groups during quiet standing and gait.
• A strong correlation (Spearman's ρ = 0.86) was found between static and dynamic lower limb alignment measurements.

Conclusions:

• Markerless motion capture effectively quantifies lower limb alignment in knee OA.
• This technology shows promise for clinical integration in assessing musculoskeletal conditions.