Osteoarthritis and the (not so) painful step toward a cure

"The technique uses ultrasound waves to detect the motion of muscles using the Doppler principle," said the lab's principal investigator Dr. Siddhartha Sikdar, "We use a stereo method, where ultrasound waves from multiple directions are combined ... with a number of other biomechanical measurements of joint movement."

When used simultaneously, the data collected by this method provides Dr. Sikdar's team a detailed look at the multiple aspects of human movement involved in preforming a dynamic task -- for example, "how much force is being applied at the knee, and how much muscle is working," said Dr. Sikdar.

And while the individual techniques themselves are not new, the combination of information from ultrasound and several other procedures such as 3D motion capture is altogether a unique and promising idea. "We believe that this integrated approach can help us better understand the underlying causes of osteoarthritis development," said Dr. Sikdar. He hypothesizes that the development of osteoarthritis is due to abnormal forces acting on the knee, leading to injury and degeneration.

"Once these abnormalities are identified, targeted intervention programs can be implemented to correct for these abnormalities," said Dr. Sikdar, "Further, we can also do subject-specific models based on actual data rather than using animal or cadaveric data."