Osteoarthritis Running & Cartilage Assessment

Linking Biomechanical and Imaging Outcomes to Better Understand the Effects of Running on Knee Joint Health

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating disease affecting millions of Canadians. Exercise is a core treatment for knee OA, and is advocated by all clinical guidelines. However, the safety of recreational running in the presence of knee OA is unclear. There are no studies available to provide direct data to appropriately inform runners and clinicians whether running should be advocated for joint health. Our research study will address this gap.

Inclusion Criteria:

ALL:

• aged greater than 40 years
• recreational runners who run at least twice per week for a total of at least 10 km, and have done so for a minimum of 12 months
• comfortable running on a treadmill for 30 minutes.

TFOA Group:

• exhibit radiographic evidence of mild or moderate tibiofemoral osteoarthritis (TFOA) according to the Kellgren and Lawrence OA classification scale (grade ≥ 2)
• report knee pain on most days of the previous 3 months (during running and activities of daily living).

Control Group:

• free of any radiographic signs of TFOA according to the Kellgren and Lawrence scale (grade = 0)
• pain free in both knees for the 12 months prior to recruitment.

Exclusion Criteria:

ALL:

• any history of traumatic knee injury (fracture, severe sprain, meniscus injury)
• presence of an inflammatory arthritic condition
• presence of any health condition (other than OA in the TFOA group) affecting normal movement or precludes engaging in moderate to high impact activities such as running
• use of any oral or injected corticosteroids or viscosupplementation in the previous 6 months
• any history of surgery in either knee
• standard contra-indications to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).