Analyzing the complex pathophysiology of Knee and Hip joint simultaneous degeneration and  the impact of gait biomechanics in Hip OA patients (Ongoing) 

The polyarticular nature of Osteoarthritis (OA) tends to manifest in multi-joints. Associations between cartilage health in connected joints can help identify early degeneration and offer the potential for biomechanical intervention. Such associations between hip and knee cartilages remain understudied. We hypothesized characterization of hip cartilage might be one of the deciding factors for how apparently normal patellofemoral cartilage would eventually degenerate over time.  The Intra-limb and Inter-limb unidirectional propagation (from hip to knee cartilages) of varied extents of degenerative changes might be possible across a diverse cohort of subjects with none to moderate hip OA and with no pre-existing radiographic knee OA. Such early effects of associations might possibly be driven by proteoglycan changes and might thus be quantified via T1p relaxation of cartilages. Therefore, the aims of this study were to a) investigate the patterns of hip (femoral and acetabular) and knee patellar cartilage T1p associations via statistical modeling, and to b) examine whether such Inter- or Intra-limb hip T1passociations might also be observed with the further smaller patellar sub-regions (deep, superficial, medial, and lateral).