Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of a simple method for assessing knee varus alignment by the distance between the medial epicondyles of the femur by measuring the femoro-tibial angle (FTA) and distance between the medial epicondyles of the femur in patients with knee OA. METHODS: The subjects were 20 patients with knee OA (14 men, 6 women, 73.5±8.5 years). The distance of between the medial epicondyles of the femur was measured with calipers in the upright position and the distance between the right and left medial epicondyles of the femur was determined in relation to the FTA.RESULTS: A significant and extremely high correlation was found between the FTA and the distance between the medial epicondyles of the femur (r＝0.91, p＜0.01). Furthermore, a single regression analysis using FTA and the distance between the medial epicondyles of the femur showed that the regression equation obtained was FTA＝1.405 × distance between the medial epicondyles of the femur ＋ 174.944, with an adjusted R2 of 0.81 for the regression equation (p＜0.01). CONCLUSION: The results suggested that the distance between the medial epicondyles of the femur is useful assessment method the knee varus alignment.
