| Knee osteoarthritis(KOA)is a common chronic disease in middle-aged and elderly patients with degenerative changes and dysfunction of the knee joint caused by the damage of the knee articular cartilage.The cardinal symptoms are: knee soreness,knee joint fells swollen and stiff,and the limitation in knee-related activities such as going up and down stairs and walking.At present,the clinical diagnosis of KOA is mainly based on the medical imaging techniques in knee joint.However,the morphological information of other diseases characterized as knee joint pain have some common features with KOA,which may cause the misjudgment and omission during doctors’ diagnosis.Therefore,there is an urgent need for a new technology that provides doctors with rapid and accurate KOA diagnostic evaluation.In addition,KOA treatments with Chinese medicines have been widely used.However,this methods lack quantitative therapeutic effect evaluation method in the clinic.Therefore,a new technology for efficacy evaluation of KOA treating with Chinese medicines is urgently needed to promote the diagnosis and treatment of knee osteoarthritis.Lower limb skeletal muscles are closely connected with knee joint,which become the important factors affecting the activities and functions of knee joint.Shear elasticity and shear viscosity are the most basic parameters for describing the bio-mechanical properties of muscles,such they are highly sensitive to physiological changes in muscles.Therefore,using Verasonics Vantage 256,the study measures and compares the shear elasticity as well as shear viscosity(totally called “viscoelasticity”)of the lower limb skeletal muscles on the healthy side and the affected side with the KOA patients as the study objects,and then analyzes the relationship between the viscoelasticity of lower limb muscles and KOA disease.In additional,the affected side muscles are treated by Fu’s Subcutaneous Needling(FSN,a traditional Chinese medicine therapy).The viscoelasticity of the muscles before and after treatment are observed,and the bio-mechanical parameters of the muscles are used to discuss the feasibility and reliability of efficacy evaluation in KOA treatment using FSN.The main contents of the study include:(1)Implement shearwave dispersion ultrasound vibrometry(SDUV)technology in Verasonics Vantage 256;(2)Acquire ultrasonic shear wave data of homogeneous phantoms based on SDUV to determine the acquisition and measurement algorithm parameter settings.Besides,measure as well as analyze the shear elasticity and viscosity of different phantoms,in order to verify the feasibility,stability and availability of the viscoelasticity measurement algorithm;(3)Carry out clinical pre-experiment to further verify the clinical feasibility and optimize the acquisition and measurement algorithm;(4)Collaborating with traditional therapy department of Guangdong Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital,80 preliminarily confirmed KOA patients’(age: 60±7;BMI: 24.7±3.2)affected side vastus lateralis were treated by FSN.Collect the ultrasonic data from the healthy side and affected side of vastus lateralis,and affected side of vastus lateralis before,during,and 20 minutes after treatment.Then the corresponding viscoelasticity is calculated.The results show significant differences in viscoelasticity of the vastus lateralis between the affected side and the healthy side,and the affected side between before and 20 minutes after treatment(p<0.05),indicating that the lower limb skeletal muscles’ viscoelasticity have potential research values in the clinical diagnosis of KOA,as well as the efficacy evaluation of FSN in the treatment of KOA quantitatively.The project uses a programmable ultrasonic data acquisition platform to take the vastus lateralis of patients with knee osteoarthritis as the research object.Based on shearwave dispersion ultrasound vibrometry,it is used to quantitatively measure of shear viscoelasticity between healthy side and affected side,and the affected side under different FSN treatment states,then analyze and discuss the correlation between lower extremity muscle biomechanical characteristics and knee osteoarthritis as well as its therapeutic effect,and explore the clinical application value of the platform established by this platform.The experimental results show that there is a significant difference in viscoelasticity between the healthy and affected side of vastus lateralis.In addition,the affected side have various viscoelasticity at different treatment moments.The project measures and analyzes the viscoelasticity of patients’ vastus lateralis with knee osteoarthritis at different FSN treatment moments to achieve quantitative measurement of biomechanical properties for the first time,providing a potential application prospect for quantitative evaluation of traditional Chinesemedicine in knee osteoarthritis treatment. |
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