A Comparison of Two Exercise Programs on Knee Motor Control

April 18, 2008 updated by: University of Melbourne

The Effect of Specific Versus Generalised Quadriceps Exercise on Neural Control of the Vasti

Pain at the front of the knee is a common condition treated by physical therapists. Treatment may consist of generalised strengthening exercises directed at the quadriceps muscle or specific retraining aimed at restoring motor control at the knee. This study compared these two exercise programs in a group of people who were painfree at the time to evaluate their effect on motor control. It was hypothesised that only the motor retraining program would influence motor control at the knee.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

60

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Australia
    • Victoria
      • Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3010
        • University of Melbourne

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

16 years to 40 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • aged between 16-40 years, with the upper age limit to reduce the likelihood of osteoarthritic changes in the patellofemoral joint
  • a self-reported history of anterior or retropatellar knee pain with insidious onset of symptoms and with at least one episode of pain in the past 12 months where pain was aggravated by at least two of the following: prolonged sitting, stairs, squat, running, kneeling and hopping/jumping
  • currently asymptomatic for at least 8 weeks prior to assessment
  • delay in the onset of VMO EMG relative to that of VL of greater than 10 ms during either the ascent or descent of a stair stepping task

Exclusion Criteria:

  • current knee pain
  • history of knee surgery or other knee injury in previous 12 months
  • physiotherapy treatment for knee pain in the past 12 months
  • history of patellar dislocation/subluxation
  • clinical evidence of meniscal lesion, ligamentous instability, traction apophysitis around the patellofemoral complex, patellar tendon pathology, chondral damage, osteoarthritis and spinal referred pain
  • current lower limb pathology affecting their ability to satisfactorily complete the testing or exercise protocol
  • current use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory or corticosteroid drugs
  • inability to communicate and comprehend written or verbal instructions in English

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
Motor control retraining program
Behavioral: Motor control retraining program
Specific retraining of VMO activation in a low-load situation,and progressed to integrate more functional positions. Use of dual channel biofeedback was incorporated
Behavioral: Quadriceps strengthening program
4 exercises focused on quadriceps strengthening commencing at a resistance of 60% 1 repetition maximum. Each exercise was performed for 3 sets of 10 repetitions

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
latency between the onset of VMO electromyographic activity relative to that of VL during stair ascent and stair descent measured using surface electrodes
Time Frame: 6 weeks with 8 week followup
6 weeks with 8 week followup

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Concentric and eccentric quadriceps muscle strength as assessed by isokinetic dynamometry
Time Frame: 6 weeks with 8 week followup
6 weeks with 8 week followup

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Melbourne

Collaborators

National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Kim L Bennell, PhD, University of Melbourne
  • Principal Investigator: Kim Bennell, University of Melbourne

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

March 1, 2003

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2005

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2005

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 15, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 18, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

April 21, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

April 21, 2008

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 18, 2008

Last Verified

April 1, 2008

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 020077

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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