On May 30, 2025, Sun Yang's team from Peking University Third Hospital, together with the team from Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, published a groundbreaking study in the international journal BMC Musculoskeletal DisordersSuccessfully achieved high-precision prediction of PFI (especially patellar tilt and patellar high position), providing a new paradigm for non-invasive dynamic evaluation of PFI.
Article link:https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891-025-08778-7
Clinical challenge: Lack of dynamic assessment methods for PFI
Knee pain troubles many people,The traditional diagnosis of PFI mainly relies on static imaging examinations such as X-rays, CT, MRI, etc. This often leads to a lack of objective mechanical indicators to guide the development of conservative treatment plans, such as rehabilitation training.
Anterior knee pain troubles approximately 25% of adults worldwide, with patellofemoral instability (PFI) being a significant contributing factor. When the patella loses its normal trajectory in the trochlear groove of the femur, it not only causes pain, but may also lead to cartilage wear and arthritis. Static imaging is difficult to capture the essence of dynamic imbalance.More importantly, there is a lack of dynamic and quantitative evaluation of the key stable structure - the mechanical state of the quadriceps muscle - in clinical practice, which often relies on subjective experience judgment by doctors for treatment plans.
New technologies, new equipment, new research
This study employed a novel quantitative technique in soft tissue mechanics,This technique is like conducting a 'hardness test' on muscles, reflecting tissue mechanical properties by measuring the shear modulus (SM).The detection equipment used is the soft tissue mechanics quantitative detector independently developed by the Xijian teamInnovatively adopting a separated design, this design overcomes the problem of signal attenuation and low signal-to-noise ratio in large muscle groups (such as quadriceps, thick fat layer, and high SM) using traditional methods.
research teamFirstly, the repeatability of the measurement results and the reliability of the detection equipment technology were verified.Healthy volunteer testing shows that musclesMeasurement values of shear modulus (SM) in straight and bent 90 ° positions: intra group consistency (repeated measurements by the same operator): ICC=0.964-0.993 (excellent); Inter group consistency (measured by different operators): ICC=0.770-0.966 (good to very good), indicating that the reliability of the technical methods and equipment used in this study has been rigorously validated.
