Arthritis is a pervasive problem and over 15% of the total population of the United States has been doctor-diagnosed with arthritis. Even more Americans have symptoms. Clearly, understanding the pathogenesis of arthritis, developing effective treatments and/or finding ways to prevent it are all important goals. Arthritis is strongly associated with abnormally high joint contact pressures, either very high-pressure single incidence events or chronically (but less extreme) elevated pressures. The ability to measure joint contact pressures in vivo would provide a means for characterizing the relationship between joint contact pressures and the degeneration of cartilage. In addition, in vivo contact pressure data could be used to aid clinical decisions and in many other aspects of research. The overall goal of our research is to develop and apply MRI-based joint contact models to measure in vivo joint contact pressures during functional loading activities. Over 1.9 million people report great difficulty or inability to grasp. Our current research efforts are focused on joint contact pressures in the radiocarpal joints. The objective of this study was to generate data for validation of MRI-based joint contact model methodology in the wrist.
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