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Vastus medialis activation with and without anterior knee pain

PainSci » bibliography » Pal et al 2011
updated
Tags: etiology, knee, patellar pain, running, biomechanics, pro, leg, limbs, pain problems, arthritis, aging, overuse injury, injury, exercise, self-treatment, treatment

One article on PainSci cites Pal 2011: The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome

PainSci commentary on Pal 2011: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.

This is a study of thigh muscle reflexes in 40 patients with anterior knee pain, compared to 15 healthy people. There was no difference. The researchers did find a correlation between slow muscle activation, and poor kneecap movement was detected only in the patients with the “worst” biomechanics: “maltrackers with both abnormal tilt and abnormal bisect offset.” It’s quite possible that having abnormal anatomy changes muscle behaviour, and not the other way around, and none of it necessarily has the slightest thing to do with PFPS — this study does not even try to answer that question. Nevertheless, the paper opines that “VM retraining may be effective” in that subgroup. Yes, it might. And it might not have anything to do with it at all.

~ Paul Ingraham

original abstract Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.

BACKGROUND: Delayed onset of vastus medialis (VM) activity compared with vastus lateralis activity is a reported cause for patellofemoral pain. The delayed onset of VM activity in patellofemoral pain patients likely causes an imbalance in muscle forces and lateral maltracking of the patella; however, evidence relating VM activation delay to patellar maltracking is sparse. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between VM activation delay and patellar maltracking measures in pain-free controls and patellofemoral pain patients.

HYPOTHESIS: Patellar tilt and bisect offset, measures of patellar tracking, correlate with VM activation delay in patellofemoral pain patients classified as maltrackers.

STUDY DESIGN: Case control study; Level of evidence, 3.

METHODS: Vasti muscle activations were recorded in pain-free (n = 15) and patellofemoral pain (n = 40) participants during walking and jogging. All participants were scanned in an open-configuration magnetic resonance scanner in an upright weightbearing position to acquire the position of the patella with respect to the femur. Patellar tilt and bisect offset were measured, and patellofemoral pain participants were classified into normal tracking and maltracking groups.

RESULTS: Correlations between VM activation delay and patellar maltracking measures were statistically significant in only the patellofemoral pain participants classified as maltrackers with both abnormal tilt and abnormal bisect offset (R(2) = .89, P < .001, with patellar tilt during walking; R(2) = .75, P = .012, with bisect offset during jogging). There were no differences between the means of activation delays in pain-free and all patellofemoral pain participants during walking (P = .516) or jogging (P = .731).

CONCLUSION: There was a relationship between VM activation delay and patellar maltracking in the subgroup of patellofemoral pain participants classified as maltrackers with both abnormal tilt and abnormal bisect offset.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: A clinical intervention such as VM retraining may be effective in only a subset of patellofemoral pain participants-namely, those with excessive tilt and excessive bisect offset measures. The results highlight the importance of appropriate classification of patellofemoral pain patients before selection of a clinical intervention.

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