Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of patients with knee osteoarthritis.
Fig 1.
Measurement of the medial knee joint using ultrasound.
Ultrasound assessed the medial meniscus when the patient was in the supine (A) and standing (B) positions. Both measurements were performed at maximum knee joint extension in each patient. The transducer was placed longitudinally at the level of the medial collateral ligament at the medial aspect of the knee joint.
Fig 2.
Definition of MME measurements.
Longitudinal ultrasound images at the level of the MCL at the medial aspect of the knee joint. MME (red line) was measured as the distance between the outermost border of the medial meniscus and the line connecting the medial borders of the femur and tibia (yellow line). Abbreviations: sMCL (light blue arrowhead), superficial bundle of the medial collateral ligament (MCL); iMCL (light blue arrowhead), intermediate superficial bundle of the MCL; dMCL (light blue arrowhead), deep posterior bundle of the MCL; MME, medial meniscal extrusion; MM, medial meniscus; MFC, medial femoral condyle; T, tibia.
Fig 3.
Temporal changes in the parameters.
Each scatterplot indicates non-weight-bearing medial meniscal extrusion (A), weight-bearing medial meniscal extrusion (B), range of motion (C), and knee pain according to the numerical rating scale (D). Red and gray circles show mean values and values in each patient, respectively. Abbreviations: BL, baseline.
Table 2.
Statistical analyses of temporal changes of the parameters.
Table 3.
Amount of change in each parameter from baseline.
Fig 4.
Images from a subject showing changes in MME at baseline (A) and 8 weeks (B). MME (red line) was lower at 8 weeks than at baseline. The dMCL (light blue arrowhead) was bulging at baseline and flattened at 8 weeks. Abbreviations: dMCL, deep posterior bundle of the medial collateral ligament; MM (yellow line), medial meniscus; MME; medial meniscus extrusion; MFC, medial femoral condyle; T, tibia.
Fig 5.
Scatter plot of changes in the parameters from baseline to 8 weeks.
Between NWMME and ROM (A), WMME and ROM (B), NWMME and pain score (C), and WMME and pain score (D). All approximately straight lines are shown as the eye guide. Abbreviations: ROM, range of motion; NWMME, non-weight-bearing medial meniscal extrusion; WMME, weight-bearing medial meniscal extrusion; NRS, numerical rating scale; rs, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient; p, p value.