Faculty Collaboration Database

TKA patients with unsatisfying knee function show changes in neuromotor synergy pattern but not joint biomechanics. J Electromyogr Kinesiol 2017 Dec;37:90-100

Date

10/11/2017

Pubmed ID

28987921

DOI

10.1016/j.jelekin.2017.09.006

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85030479734 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   12 Citations

Abstract

Nearly 20% of patients who have undergone total knee arthroplasty (TKA) report persistent poor knee function. This study explores the idea that, despite similar knee joint biomechanics, the neuro-motor synergies may be different between high-functional and low-functional TKA patients. We hypothesized that (1) high-functional TKA recruit a more complex neuro-motor synergy pattern compared to low-functional TKA and (2) high-functional TKA patients demonstrate more stride-to-stride variability (flexibility) in their synergies. Gait and electromyography (EMG) data were collected during level walking for three groups of participants: (i) high-functional TKA patients (n=13); (ii) low-functional TKA patients (n=13) and (iii) non-operative controls (n=18). Synergies were extracted from EMG data using non-negative matrix factorization. Analysis of variance and Spearman correlation analyses were used to investigate between-group differences in gait and neuro-motor synergies. Results showed that synergy patterns were different among the three groups. Control subjects used 5-6 independent neural commands to execute a gait cycle. High functional TKA patients used 4-5 independent neural commands while low-functional TKA patients relied on only 2-3 independent neural commands to execute a gait cycle. Furthermore, stride-to-stride variability of muscles' response to the neural commands was reduced up to 15% in low-functional TKAs compared to the other two groups.

Author List

Ardestani MM, Malloy P, Nam D, Rosenberg AG, Wimmer MA

Author

Phillip Malloy in the CTSI department at Medical College of Wisconsin - CTSI

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Aged
Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee
Biomechanical Phenomena
Female
Gait
Humans
Knee
Male
Middle Aged
Muscle, Skeletal
Osteoarthritis, Knee
Postoperative Complications