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Isotonic quadriceps-hamstring strength ratios of patients with knee osteoarthritis and apparently healthy controls
Abstract
investigated. Participants in the study were twenty patients with knee OA (13 females and 7 males) and 20 (11 females and 9 males) apparently healthy control subjects. The mean ages of the OA and control subjects were 53.20±8.51 and 40.05 ± 7.94 years respectively. Isotonic hamstring strength (ITHS) and isotonic quadriceps strength (ITQS) were estimated using the one repetition maximum (1-RM) format. Q/H ratio was estimated by dividing the quadriceps muscle strength by the hamstring muscle strength. Data were summarized as mean and standard deviation. The independent t-test was used to compare the mean of the variables of age, weight, height, Quetelet index (QI), isotonic quadriceps strength (ITQS), isotonic hamstrings strength (ITHS) and isotonic quadriceps/hamstrings strength ratio (Q/H) between the two groups. The µ-level was set at 0.05. Results showed a significantly higher ITQS (p=0.01) and ITHS (p=0.00) for the apparently healthy control
subjects than the patients with knee OA. The patient group had a significantly higher age (p=0.00), weight (p=0.03) and QI (p=0.01) than the control group but the two groups of subjects had similar Height (p=0.30) and Q/H ratio (p=0.07). (Afr. J. Biomed. Res. 10: 211 – 216)