(Dr. Amir Esrafilian, Department of Technical Physics, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland, 23. November, 2023 )
Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a degenerative and painful joint disease, with no proven cure. Current treatments target managing symptoms, often starting with non-surgical interventions like gait modifications. These interventions aim to reshape the mediolateral distribution of knee contact forces, intending to decelerate or postpone the progression of mechanically induced KOA. However, the effectiveness of the interventions is debated, with no evidence of change in tissue-level knee mechanics – one factor governing cartilage degradation response in KOA. Utilizing musculoskeletal finite element analysis, our study investigated how different gait conditions and modifications affect tissue-level knee mechanics previously suggested as indicators of collagen network damage, cell death, and loss of proteoglycans in knee cartilage. In this seminar, we will explore these personalized computational models and showcase how the in silico approach can help tailor gait modifications to delay or decelerate KOA progression.
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