Associations Between Muscle Quality and Knee Osteoarthritis Pain are Independent of Muscle Strength

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) pain is complex and is associated with skeletal muscle weakness and both peripheral and central pain mechanisms. Historically, it has been postulated that movement-evoked pain inhibits physical activity resulting in muscle atrophy and subsequent weakness that increases pain through biomechanical processes. Emerging evidence challenges this assumption, as increased muscle size and strength are not always equivalent to improvements in pain. Skeletal muscle quality (e.g., echo intensity and shear wave velocity), however, is worse in persons with knee OA compared to age-matched healthy controls and may underly pain processes.
Source: The Journal of Pain - Category: Materials Science Authors: Tags: Pain and Aging Source Type: research