Screw-Home Movement of the Tibiofemoral Joint during Normal Gait: Three-Dimensional Analysis

Background

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the screw-home movement at the tibiofemoral joint during normal gait by utilizing the 3-dimensional motion capture technique.

Methods

Fifteen young males and fifteen young females (total 60 knee joints) who had no history of musculoskeletal disease or a particular gait problem were included in this study. Two more markers were attached to the subject in addition to the Helen-Hayes marker set. Thus, two virtual planes, femoral coronal plane (P_f) and tibial coronal plane (P_t), were created by Skeletal Builder software. This study measured the 3-dimensional knee joint movement in the sagittal, coronal, and transverse planes of these two virtual planes (P_f and P_t) during normal gait.

Results

With respect to kinematics and kinetics, both males and females showed normal adult gait patterns, and the mean difference in the temporal gait parameters was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). In the transverse plane, the screw-home movement occurred as expected during the pre-swing phase and the late-swing phase at an angle of about 17°. However, the tibia rotated externally with respect to the femur, rather than internally, while the knee joint started to flex during the loading response (paradoxical screw-home movement), and the angle was 6°.

Conclusions

Paradoxical screw-home movement may be an important mechanism that provides stability to the knee joint during the remaining stance phase. Obtaining the kinematic values of the knee joint during gait can be useful in diagnosing and treating the pathological knee joints.     

Protein tyrosine phosphatase conjugated with a novel transdermal delivery peptide,astrotactin 1–derived peptide recombinant protein tyrosine phosphatase (AP-rPTP), alleviates both atopic dermatitis–like and psoriasis-like dermatitis

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Identification of zoonotic Giardia duodenalis in Korean native calves with normal feces

Parasitology Research - Giardia duodenalis is an important zoonotic protozoan parasite that infects humans and other animals. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence and molecular...     

Can osteoarthritic patients with mild varus deformity be indicated for high tibial osteotomy?

Background

Whether osteoarthritic patients with mild varus deformity can be indicated for high tibial osteotomy (HTO) is not established. We examined the preoperative characteristics and postoperative outcomes of HTO in patients with mild genu varum compared to patients with greater varus deformity.

Bicaudal D2 is a novel autoantibody target in systemic sclerosis that shares a key epitope with CENP-A but has a distinct clinical phenotype

We studied the clinical correlations and epitopes of autoantibodies directed to a novel autoantigen, Bicaudal D (BICD2), in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and reviewed its relationship to centromere protein A (CENP-A). 451 SSc sera were tested for anti-BICD2 using a paramagnetic bead immunoassay and then univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to study the association between anti-BICD2 and demographic and clinical parameters as well as other SSc-related autoantibodies. Epitope mapping was performed on solid phase matrices. 25.7% (116/451) SSc sera were anti-BICD2 positive, of which 19.0% had single specificity anti-BICD2 and 81.0% had other autoantibodies, notably anti-CENP (83/94; 88.3%). Compared to anti-BICD2 negative subjects (335/451), single specificity anti-BICD2 subjects were more likely to have an inflammatory myopathy (IM; 31.8% vs. 9.6%, p = .004) and interstitial lung disease (ILD; 52.4% vs. 29.0%, p = .024). Epitope mapping revealed a serine- and proline-rich nonapeptide SPSPGSSLP comprising amino acids 606–614 of BICD2, shared with CENP-A but not CENP-B. We observed that autoantibodies to BICD2 represent a new biomarker as they were detected in patients without other SSc-specific autoantibodies and were the second most common autoantibody identified in this SSc cohort. Our data indicate that the major cross-reactive epitope is associated with anti-CENP-A but, unlike anti-CENP, single specificity anti-BICD2 antibodies associate with ILD and IM.