Exercise linked with reduced pain in patients with knee OA

Patients with knee osteoarthritis who underwent an exercise program for 12 weeks experienced a reduction in pain, as well as muscle perfusion changes, according to results presented at the Osteoarthritis Research Society International World Congress and published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders.

by Casey Tingle, Healio April 28, 2017

“Twelve weeks of exercise posed clinically relevant pain reductions and muscle perfusion changes were different between groups, and the reduced pain was associated with increased muscle perfusion,” Elisabeth Bandak said in her presentation.

Bandak and colleagues compared changes in muscle perfusion among 31 patients who underwent supervised exercise therapy three times per week with 29 patients in a control group who received no attention throughout the study period. Researchers quantified main muscle perfusion outcomes by analyzing dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI for total, extensor and flexor muscles. Perfusion outcomes included proportion of highly perfused voxels, initial rate of enhancement index and maximal enhancement index, according to researchers. Researchers also used the KOOS to assess pain and other knee-related symptoms.

Results showed a significant group difference in KOOS pain changes from baseline to follow-up, with the difference in favor of the exercise group.

“When looking at the muscle perfusion changes, there were significant group differences in the muscle perfusion parameters, and here we see the result form the total muscles and the patterns were the same for the flexor and extensor [muscles],” Bandak said.

Bandak noted patients in the exercise group had a prevented loss of muscle perfusion and she noted a drop in muscle perfusion in the control group.

“Correlations of change were explored across the population, and we found that KOOS pain changes and muscle perfusion changes were positively associated,” she said.

Source Healio

References

Exercise-induced pain changes associate with changes in muscle perfusion in knee osteoarthritis: Exploratory outcome analyses of a randomised controlled trial, Bandak E, Boesen M, Bliddal H, Riis RGC, Nielsen SM, Klokker L, Bartholdy C, Nybing JD, & Henriksen M. (2019). BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 20(1), 491. [491]. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-019-2858-8

Also see
Walking Benefits The Brain The Daily Journalist
The Medical Minute: The Many Health Benefits of Cycling Penn State Health