TY - JOUR T1 - Investigation of hip abductor activation in subjects with clinical unilateral hip osteoarthritis JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases JO - Ann Rheum Dis SP - 687 LP - 692 DO - 10.1136/ard.61.8.687 VL - 61 IS - 8 AU - K J Sims AU - C A Richardson AU - S G Brauer Y1 - 2002/08/01 UR - http://ard.bmj.com/content/61/8/687.abstract N2 - Objectives: (a) To compare the magnitude of gluteus medius and tensor fascia lata activation between a group of subjects with clinical unilateral hip osteoarthritis and a group of healthy older adults. (b) To compare the magnitude of activation of the gluteus medius and tensor fascia lata between sides in a group of subjects with clinical unilateral hip osteoarthritis and a group of healthy older adults. Methods: 19 subjects with clinical unilateral hip osteoarthritis and 19 healthy controls were investigated. The subjects performed a stepping task during which recordings were obtained using surface electromyograms from the hip abductors, and kinetic data were obtained from a dual force platform. Results: Subjects with clinical hip osteoarthritis had higher gluteus medius activation than the healthy older adults (p=0.037). In addition, there were no differences in the magnitude of gluteus medius activation between the sides (p=0.733). There was no difference in the force platform data between the groups (p=0.078). Conclusions: The increased magnitude of gluteus medius activation in the group with hip osteoarthritis is evidence of a muscular dysfunction associated with hip disease. This has implications for the progressive nature of the disease and for its conservative management. ER -