News
Graduations and farewells!
Congratulations Dr. Soyoung Lee for officially graduating! Congratulations Dina for completing the MS Human Physiology program! Congratulations Yiwen for completing the DPT program and welcome back as a PhD student!! Best wishes to Ranny for her move to Johns Hopkins!
Coverage about A&R paper in Healio Rheumatology
Read more here: https://www.healio.com/news/rheumatology/20250513/early-sustained-physical-therapy-stems-intraarticular-injection-in-knee-osteoarthritis
Congratulations Dina for defending MS thesis!
Dina did an amazing job at her MS thesis defense! Congratulations!
New publication in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Open
Using functional neuroimaging, we report that people with chronic knee pain due to osteoarthritis exhibit greater prefrontal cortex activity during a step-up task compared to walking, likely reflecting larger task demand. Further, pain-related catastrophizing, but not pain severity, was related to a smaller increase in prefrontal cortex activity from walking to step-up.
These findings suggest that people with knee osteoarthritis may need greater executive resources and pain modulation during physically demanding daily activities compared to walking and that pain catastrophizing may be related to lower prefrontal cortex reserve during daily activities.
First author: Soyoung Lee, PhD
Free full text at this link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665913125000512
We were at OARSI Annual Congress in Incheon, Korea!
Rhodora and Ranny present at MHeT ARC Symposium
Rhodora and Ranny shared their work at the Musculoskeletal Health Affinity Research Collaborative (ARC) Mini-Symposium at BU.
New publication in Arthritis Care and Research
We reported that slight pain with exercise is related to greater likelihood of experiencing analgesic effects of exercise in people with knee osteoarthritis.
Read more here: https://acrjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acr.25524
New publication in Arthritis & Rheumatology
Physical therapist-provided interventions remain the first-line recommendation for managing pain and disability related to knee osteoarthritis. However, utilization of physical therapy remains low vs. use of less effective and potentially harmful interventions including intra-articular corticosteroids and intra-articular hyaluronic acid injections.
Using real-world claims data from 67,245 people with incident knee osteoarthritis, we report that earlier initiation of physical therapy (i.e., within 1 month of diagnosis) and more than 12 sessions of physical therapy are related to lower odds of future intra-articular therapy utilization in this population.
These real-world data provide support for optimizing treatment recommendations and practical guidance for implementation of timing and dose of physical therapy care in people with newly diagnosed knee osteoarthritis while minimizing the need for more invasive therapies that themselves may have minimal (if any) long-term benefit along with concerns about long-term safety.
Read more here: https://acrjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/art.43155.
Dr. Kumar spoke at the Pain Research Group at University of Iowa
Dr. Kumar was invited to speak at the Pain Research Group seminar at the University of Iowa on March 26, 2025.
New publication in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage
Congratulations Ehyun Kim on her new publication in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage!
Mechanisms underlying gait alterations in people with knee osteoarthritis remain unclear and which patients may benefit from biomechanical interventions to reduce knee loading needs study.
We observed that lower pressure pain threshold at the knee or the wrist, i.e., greater peripheral and/or central pain sensitization, was related to lower frontal plane knee loading during walking in people with knee osteoarthritis (n=104). While the cross-sectional analyses do not allow us to determine directionality or causality, it may be plausible that individuals with knee OA who are most pain-sensitized may alter their gait patterns—not entirely via reductions in gait speed—to reduce knee loading in an attempt to decrease knee pain. Plausibly, biomechanical interventions to reduce knee loading may be most appropriate for people with knee OA without elevated pain sensitivity.
Access full-text for free using this link (until April 15).