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Our results indicate that intermittent exposure to sprifermin leads to expansion of hyaline cartilage-producing chondrocytes. These in vitro findings are consistent with the increased cartilage volume observed in the knees of OA patients after intra-articular injection with sprifermin in clinical studies.

Background: It remains unclear whether application of local anesthesia (LA) interferes with clinical efficacy of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) for chronic plantar fasciitis. Aims: To evaluate the effect of local anesthesia on the clinical outcome after repetitive low-energy ESWT for chronic plantar fasciitis. Methods: Eighty-six patients with chronic plantar fasciitis were randomly assigned to receive either low-energy ESWT without

In order to reduce pain caused by the affected hip joint, unilateral hip osteoarthritis patients (HOAP) adopt characteristic gait patterns. However, it is unknown if the knee and hip joint loading in the non-affected (limb ) and the affected (limb ) limb differ from healthy controls (HC) and which gait parameters correlate with potential abnormal joint loading. Instrumented 3D-gait analysis was performed on 18 HOAP and 18 sex, age, and height matched HC. The limb showed greater first and second peak external hip adduction moments (first HAM: +15%, p = 0.014; second HAM: +15%, p = 0.021, respectively), than seen in HC. In contrast, the second peak external knee adduction moment (KAM) in the limb is reduced by about 23% and 30% compared to the limb and HC, respectively. Furthermore, our patients showed characteristic gait compensation strategies including reduced peak vertical forces (pvF), a greater foot progression angle (FPA), and reduced knee range of motion (ROM) in the limb . The limb was 5.6 ± 3.8 mm shorter than the limb . Results of stepwise regression analyses showed that increased first pvF explain 16% of first HAM alterations, whereas knee ROM and FPA explain 39% of second KAM alterations. We therefore expect an increased rate of progression of OA in the hip joint of the limb and suggest that the shift in the medial-to-lateral knee joint load distribution may impact the rate of progression of OA in the limb . The level of evidence is III. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:1764-1773, 2017.

IntroductionThe effects of manipulated dental occlusion on body posture has been investigated quite often and discussed controversially in the literature. Far less attention has been paid to the influence of dental occlusion position on human movement. If human movement was analysed, it was mostly while walking and not while running. This study was therefore designed to identify the effect of lower jaw positions on running behaviour according to different dental occlusion positions.MethodsTwenty healthy young recreational runners (mean age = 33.9±5.8 years) participated in this study. Kinematic data were collected using an eight-camera Vicon motion capture system (VICON Motion Systems, Oxford, UK). Subjects were consecutively prepared with four different dental occlusion conditions in random order and performed five running trials per test condition on a level walkway with their preferred running shoes. Vector based pattern recognition methods, in particular cluster analysis and support vector machines (SVM) were used for movement pattern identification.ResultsSubjects exhibited unique movement patterns leading to 18 clusters for the 20 subjects. No overall classification of the splint condition could be observed. Within individual subjects different running patterns could be identified for the four splint conditions. The splint conditions lead to a more symmetrical running pattern than the control condition.DiscussionThe influence of an occlusal splint on running pattern can be confirmed in this study. Wearing a splint increases the symmetry of the running pattern. A more symmetrical running pattern might help to reduce the risk of injuries or help in performance. The change of the movement pattern between the neutral condition and any of the three splint conditions was significant within subjects but not across subjects. Therefore the dental splint has a measureable influence on the running pattern of subjects, however subjects individuality has to be considered when choosing the optimal splint condition for a specific subject.