Isotonic Quadriceps-Hamstring Strength Ratios of Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis and Apparently Healthy Controls

This study was conducted to compare the isotonic quadriceps-hamstring (Q/H) ratios of patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) and apparently healthy control subjects. The relationships between Q/H ratio and each of height, total body weight, age and Quetelet index of both groups were also 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).

Keywords
Osteoarthritis, quadriceps-hamstring ratio, muscular strength, isotonic strength