Avaliação da qualidade de vida, do padrão de recrutamento muscular durante a subida e descida do degrau de uma escada e no senso de posição articular em indivíduos com e sem osteoartrite de joelho

Abstract

Introduction - Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic disease, usually characterized by pain, which is associated with reduced muscle strength, disability and progressive loss of function how to walk, climb stairs and other tasks of the lower limbs, the knee being the most affected joint. Objective -To identify the levels of pain, the proprioceptive acuity and the pattern of muscle recruitment during stair ascent and descent in elderly patients with osteoarthritis (OA) compared to healthy subjects. Methods - The study participants included 11 healthy elderly subjects (7 women and 4 men) and 31 elderly patients with knee OA (19 women and 12 men). The functional capacity was assessed by the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) osteoarthritis index; the pain was evaluated by Wong-Baker faces pain rating scale (WBS) and pressure pain threshold (PPT); the proprioceptive acuity was based on the joint position sense; and the electromyographic (EMG) activity of the major muscles of the lower limb were evaluated during a task of stair ascent and descent of 15 cm. Results - Higher scores were found in the WOMAC index and WBS whereas lower scores were seen in PPT in patients with knee OA compared to healthy subjects. In contrast, there were no significant differences in the proprioceptive acuity based on position sense and EMG results of most muscles analyzed between the groups. Conclusion - We conclude that although the pain was present in subjects with OA, both subjective and objective way, it did not influence the variables analyzed, showing no differences in proprioceptive acuity and pattern of muscle recruitment during stair ascent and descent between healthy and OA subjects.