Journal of Society of Indian Physiotherapists

Activation patterns of quadriceps and gastrocnemius muscles during a step-up task in patients with osteoarthritis

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Article Type : Original Article

Author Details: Anish Mazumder, Soni Sathish, Sayli Rajadhyaksha, Ramesh Debur

Volume : 2

Issue : 2

Online ISSN : 2582-0702

Print ISSN : 2456-7787

Article First Page : 47

Article End Page : 50

Abstract

Introduction: It is often seen that patients with Osteoarthritis (OA) continue to have reduced Quadriceps activity even after long term rehabilitation, suggesting that there might be overactivity of other muscles. Hence, the aim of this study was to find if there existed a difference in the muscle activity of Quadriceps and Gastrocnemius during a step up task in patients with OA as compared to normal individuals.
Aim: To assess and compare the EMG activation of Gastrocnemius and Rectus femoris in patients with OA knee and in asymptomatic individuals.
Design: Laboratory controlled exploratory design.
Material and Methods: 35 subjects with OA and 34 asymptomatic individuals were taken up for the study. Subjects were age, gender and BMI matched.Subjects underwent an isometric strength test on Isokinetic Dynamometer. The Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC) with an EMG machine was recorded. Subjects stepped up on a single step 10 times, during which EMG activity was recorded from Rectus Femoris, Lateral Gastrocnemius and Medial Gastrocnemius. Data was analysed from the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th trials after normalizing raw amplitude values to MVC values.
Statistical analysis: Independent ‘t’ test was used to compare muscle activity percentage values between groups as well as within groups.
Results: Between comparison showed a significant increase in the EMG activity of Lateral Gastrocnemius (p<0> Conclusion:The present study showed a significant difference between Quadriceps and Gastrocnemius muscle activities during a step up task in OA patients as compared to normal individuals.

Keywords: EMG activity, Gastrocnemius, Osteoarthritis, Quadriceps, Step up task

Doi No:-10.18231