Tibiofemoral centroid velocity correlates more consistently with cartilage damage than does contact path length in two ovine models of stifle injury

Abstract

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture and/or meniscal injury are known risk factors for post-traumatic osteoarthritis. We tested the hypothesis that increasingly abnormal tibiofemoral centroid path lengths and velocities would correlate with the severity of cartilage damage in injured sheep. Six sheep underwent combined ACL/medial collateral ligament transection (ACL/MCLx), five complete lateral meniscectomy (Mx), and four sham arthrotomy (Sham). Weighted centroids were used to estimate in vivo tibiofemoral cartilage contact path length during stance and the velocity of relative motion. Cartilage morphology was graded at dissection. Ligament transection significantly elongated plateau centroid path lengths and velocities, whereas condyle paths and velocities were reduced. Differences between plateau and femoral velocities (relative centroid velocity) were increased up to 10-fold over baseline values in the medial compartment. Reductions in Mx lateral compartment paths were significantly different from ACL/MCLx paths, but not relative to baseline or Sham values. Importantly, only centroid velocities consistently correlated with cartilage damage in either injury model, suggesting that while path length is valuable in detecting changes in the envelope of joint motion, it may average out meaningful peaks in the rate of relative motion that more closely relate to the mechanisms that might be damaging articular cartilage in these models. ß

Evaluation of Meniscal Mechanics and Proteoglycan Content in a Modified Anterior Cruciate Ligament Transection Model

“…Additionally, no previous models have considered the classic case of ACL tear combined with meniscus tears. The majority of previous studies have been either isolated ACL tears [6][7][8][9][10][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] or meniscectomy models [33][34][35][36][37]. Thus, there is a need to develop a model that can accurately represent this combined case.…”

Dynamic contact mechanics on the tibial plateau of the human knee during activities of daily living

“…Increased velocity of contact between the tibia and femur has been correlated with increased rates of articular cartilage degeneration in an ovine model (Beveridge et al, 2013); suggesting that scaffolds to repair ligamentous soft tissue injuries should result in velocities of contact that do not differ significantly from that of the intact knee so as to avoid further cartilage injury. Despite this requirement, no data exists that describes the velocity of directly measured contact in human knees during activities of daily living.…”

“…Based on prior studies that have indicated a relationship between velocity of tibial-femoral contact and rate of cartilage degeneration (Beveridge et al, 2013), and a relationship between shear stress magnitude and structural organization of cell-seeded scaffolds for articular cartilage defects (Chen et al, 2012), we sought to describe the movement of contact on the tibia. The (X, Y) location of the weighted center of contact (WCoC X , WCoC Y ) for the medial and lateral plateau for each frame of data throughout the gait cycle were computed (see Supplement B & Gee and Wang et al, in review), where X is in the medial-lateral direction and Y is in the anterior-posterior direction.…”

Physical Activity and Spatial Differences in Medial Knee T1rho and T2 Relaxation Times in Knee Osteoarthritis

“…Recent animal work supports these hypotheses, where centroid paths at the knee were increased after an anterior cruciate ligament transection and reduced after meniscal excision. 5 The authors concluded that the mechanism of cartilage damage may be related to increased magnitude and velocity of surface motion in the anterior cruciate ligament transection model and to increased contact stress in the meniscectomy model. These studies highlight the importance of investigating the superficial and deep cartilage layers separately to understand the knee OA disease process.…”