Munukka (2016) Efficacy of progressive aquatic resistance training for tibiofemoral cartilage in postmenopausal women with mild knee osteoarthritis
Objective: To study the efficacy of aquatic resistance training on biochemical composition of tibiofemoral cartilage in postmenopausal women with mild knee osteoarthritis (OA).
Design: Eighty seven volunteer postmenopausal women, aged 60-68 years, with mild knee OA (KellgreneLawrence grades I/II and knee pain) were recruited and randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 43) and control (n = 44) group. The intervention group participated in 48 supervised aquatic resistance training sessions over 16 weeks while the control group maintained usual level of physical activity. The biochemical composition of the medial and lateral tibiofemoral cartilage was estimated using single-slice transverse relaxation time (T2) mapping and delayed gadoliniumenhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage (dGEMRIC index). Secondary outcomes were cardiorespiratory fitness, isometric knee extension and flexion force and knee injury and OA outcome (KOOS) questionnaire.
Results: After 4-months aquatic training, there was a significant decrease in both T2 -1.2 ms (95% confidence interval (CI): -2.3 to -0.1, P = 0.021) and GEMRIC index -23 ms (-43 to -3, P = 0.016) in the training group compared to controls in the full thickness posterior region of interest (ROI) of the medial femoral cartilage. Cardiorespiratory fitness significantly improved in the intervention group by 9.8% (P = 0.010).